


Love Makes the Family

by Klainelover1997



Series: We Are Family [2]
Category: Glee
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-17
Updated: 2020-04-17
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:14:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 25,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23692960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Klainelover1997/pseuds/Klainelover1997
Summary: Sequel to "We Are Family" Kurt and Blaine have a wonderful life with their daughter, Lily, but they want more. After not being cleared for adoption, they become foster parents. As the Anderson-Hummel family expands different challenges occur, but there nothing they can't handle. Blood doesn't make a family, love does and in this house, there's a lot to go around.
Relationships: Blaine Anderson & Kurt Hummel
Series: We Are Family [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1706215





	1. Chapter 1

Blaine's POV

On the day of your wedding, you think you know exactly what love is. Well, I did anyway. As Kurt walked down the aisle towards me, my heart swelled with joy. This was the man that I was going to be with for the rest of my life. The man who I would wake up next to and share meals with. The man I would care for in sickness and in health and the man who would do the same for me and eventually the man I would start a family with. When Kurt made it to the front of the ceremony space and grabbed my hands, everything felt so surreal. I could hear the officiate talking, but I couldn't break my gaze with Kurt's light green eyes.

"Kurt, do you take Blaine to be your lawfully wedded husband?" was the first thing that I really comprehended that the officiate said. I looked to Kurt and he smiled back at me.

"I do." he said with total confidence in his answer as he ran his thumb over over my knuckles and stared directly into my eyes. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw the officiate turn to me.

"And do you, Blaine, take Kurt to be your lawfully wedded husband?" This was a question that I had been waiting my whole life to answer. With no one else but Kurt in my thoughts or in my line of sight, I opened my mouth and said, "I do." Then before I could even register anything, Kurt lunged forwards and pressed his lips against mine. At last, I was finally who I wanted to be. I was Blaine Anderson-Hummel, husband to Kurt Anderson-Hummel. Now, like I said, that was the day that I thought I knew exactly what love was, but boy was I wrong. It wasn't until I held a beautiful, blonde haired little girl in my arms that I knew, truly, what love was.

Kurt and I always knew that we wanted kids, so we wasted no time in doing just that. We got in touch with a surrogacy agency and met the most wonderful woman named Lucy in the waiting room. She was blonde with green eyes that looked exactly like Kurts. I'd swear that they were twins because they looked so much alike. She spoke with us in the waiting room and I felt such a strong connection between the three of us. Our conversation with Lucy was cut short when the director of the agency called us into her office. She spoke with us about the process and all the different costs that would come with it. I understood that it was her job to let us know everything about the surrogacy process, but she really didn't need to. Our minds were made up and we were going through with this. We were going to be fathers. After she finished talking to us, she handed us these huge books filled with pictures and information about possible surrogates. When I opened the book to the very first page, something magical happened. The first picture, and possible surrogate, was Lucy. I leaned over to Kurt and showed him the picture. I knew that he was feeling the exact way that I was and that our minds were made up.

"We'd like this one, Lucy Owens, to be our surrogate." I said to the director. She smiled back at Kurt and I.

"Good choice." she told us. From there, it was history. Lucy became our surrogate and carried our healthy baby girl to term. Waiting in the hospital the day that my daughter was born had to be, or at least it felt, like the longest day of my life. I watched Kurt, the love of my life, care for this girl, who had agreed to do the greatest act of kindness for us, go through one of the most pain processes known to man. Kurt fed her ice chips and let her squeeze his hand through the contractions. I knew that he was going to be an amazing father. Me, on the other hand, I wasn't so sure enough. I had never even had a real father until I was seventeen. What kind of father would I be? Would I know what to do? I just didn't know.

After a ten hour long labor, I stood on one side of Lucy's bed and Kurt stood on the other, each of us holding one of her hands as she screamed and pushed out our little girl.

"I can't do this!" she shrieked in pain as tears ran down her face. I didn't know what to do. What do you tell a woman in that position? Luckily, Kurt did. He leaned in close and whispered something into her ear, something I couldn't hear. She looked up at him and she smiled and then she nodded her head and continued to push. To this day, I still don't know what he said to her, but I'm glad he did. After that last push, a loud cry echoed through the room and I couldn't help but just smile. The doctor clipped the cord and then wrapped our little girl in a light pink blanket and then, he turned to me.

"Here you go daddy." he said as he plopped my daughter into my arms. That little girl stared up at me and I just started to cry. She was so beautiful and she was everything that I had ever hoped for. Kurt walked over and placed his chin on my shoulder as he too looked down at our daughter.

"That's our baby." He whispered. "That's our Lily Elizabeth." I nodded my head, not breaking my gaze from Lily's baby blue eyes just as I had done on the day of my wedding with Kurt. I was overcome with love for this little person who I had just met. I would do anything for her and always protect her. She completed our family and we were both so happy that she was finally here.


	2. Chapter 2

Kurt's POV

Who would have ever thought I could father a child who was so engrossed in sports? Yet, here I sit on a cold metal bleacher watching a bunch of ten year olds run back and forth kicking a black and white ball. Lily started playing soccer when she was just four years old. Neither Blaine or I could believe it. We tried to put it off as long as we could by trying to get interested in dance or singing, something we were more familiar with, but Lily wasn't buying it. She wanted to play soccer. When Lily was just three years old, we moved to a house in a more suburban area. We loved that house and everything about it. We especially loved the big backyard that we had for Lily to play in. That backyard was the very place where we found Lily kicking the soccer ball her Grandpa Burt had gotten for her birthday back and forth all by herself. We knew then, that we couldn't put off signing her up for a soccer team any longer.

From that point on, soccer became a major part of our lives and Blaine and I spent almost every Saturday morning down at the soccer fields watching our daughter run around. And, If I'm being honest, despite the cold, I loved it. I loved seeing my little girl happy.

It wasn't until Lily twelve that I started to want something more in our life. Blaine and I made the decision to start a family very early, much earlier than any of our friends in glee club. Now, they all had toddlers and babies and I couldn't help but feel that I had a bit of baby fever. I wanted another so badly. So, I brought it up to Blaine one night in bed.

"Do you ever miss having a baby in the house?" I asked. Blaine looked at me and he actually laughed.

"Sure, because two a.m feedings and dirty diapers were so much fun the first time." He answered sarcastically. That just made my heart drop. Blaine didn't want another child. Without saying anything in response, I rolled over onto my side facing away from him. "Kurt?" I heard him say. He got closer to me and wrapped his arms around my body. "Hey, come on. I was kidding. Do you really want to have another baby?" he asked. I turned back over and looked him into the eyes and nodded my head. He smiled back at me with that same grin I saw on the day that Lily was born.

"Of course, I'll have another baby with you." He said. "We already have one perfect daughter, might as well try for another." he added. I was so happy at the moment, I couldn't help but pull him close and kiss him. We were going to have another baby.

Blaine and I decided collectively that we wanted to adopt. Surrogacy was a great experience for us, but we knew that this was something that we had to do. We applied to adopt and then all we had to was wait. Those two months were the longest two months of my life. Finally, we got the papers back, but they weren't what were expecting. We hadn't been approved to adopt. I cried all night that night into Blaine's chest. I just felt this inconsolable pain as I ached to have another child in our lives. After about two weeks and after I had grieved this loss, Blaine came up to me with another option.

"What if we became foster parents?" he asked. I honestly just wanted to slap him.

"We didn't get approved to adopt. What makes you think that we would get approved to be foster parents?" I asked him angrily.

"You'd be surprised the types of people that they approve." Blaine replied. I instantly felt bad for what I said. Blaine had been a foster child himself and had gone through a total of fifteen foster homes. And, from the stories that he had told me, I knew that many of them had been pretty awful, so I agreed. We would love any child that came to us, so why not?

The papers came back a month later and we were approved. I couldn't believe it. We were finally going to have more children in our home.


	3. Chapter 3

After three years of waiting, Kurt and Blaine were losing hope that a child would ever be placed with them. But then, one day, they got a call.

"Hello?" Kurt said as he picked up the phone.

"Hello Mr. Anderson-Hummel, This is Janeen Rhodes from New York Social Services." The woman said. "We have a child that we'd like to place with you, if you and your husband are ready to take him in for the time being." Kurt didn't hesitated to answer.

"Yes, of course, we'll take them." Kurt answered.

"Great, his name is Seth and he's 11." Janeen told him. "He lost him mother just a few months ago to a car accident. His father was driving and he was drunk. So, his dad is in jail at the moment. This poor kid really just needs a good place to stay. Can I bring him over later tonight?"

"That's just awful." Kurt replied. "We'll be ready for him tonight." The woman thanked him for taking Seth and then hung up to go and get him ready. After calling Blaine, who was overjoyed at the news, Kurt started getting their guest room ready for Seth.

After dinner time, Kurt, Blaine, and Lily waited anxiously for Seth to arrive. Around nine o'clock, a car pulled into their driveway and a woman and young boy got out of the car. They walked up the walkway where Kurt and Blaine were waiting.

"Kurt, Blaine, this is Seth." Janeen told them before turning back to Seth.

"Seth, this is Kurt and Blaine Anderson-Hummel. You'll be staying with them for a while. okay?" She said. The young boy nodded his head and remained silent. Kurt walked away from Blaine's side and went up to Seth.

"Hi Seth, would you like to come inside?" Kurt asked. Seth shook his head and leaned closer to the social worker. "There's no reason to be scared. We have a room ready for you." Kurt added.

"My own room?" Seth asked quietly.

"Yup, it's all yours." Kurt said with a smile. Seth came out from behind Janeen and started to walk towards the house with Kurt at his side. The three of them went into the house where Lily was lounging on couch on her cell phone. She looked up when she saw Seth next to her fathers.

"Lily, this is Seth." Kurt said to his daughter. Lily looked disappointed. Neither Kurt or Blaine knew what exactly she was expecting, but it definitely wasn't a kid like Seth.

"Hey." She said with a wave of her hand. Seth silently waved back. Lily returned to looking at her phone so Kurt and Blaine led him down to his bedroom. Seth went in and sat down on the bed after setting his small bag down. He looked around the room and they could both tell that everything was just really overwhelming for this boy.

"We'll leave you in here to settle in." Kurt said. "We'll be in the kitchen if you need us, okay?" Seth nodded and watched until they left. Kurt and Blaine went back to the living room where Lily was waiting.

"I thought that we were getting...a young kid." Lily said.

"I never said that." Kurt told her. "Right now, he's what we have and you need to make him feels at home here." Lily rolled her eyes and got up from the couch and went to her room. Kurt and Blaine were completely confused at their daughter's actions. Lily had never been one to be jealous, but then again, she never had a sibling to be jealous of.

"Don't worry about it, honey." Blaine told his husband. "She'll get over herself and get used to it." Kurt nodded. He hoped that Blaine was right. Soon after, Kurt and Blaine headed to bed.

In the middle of the night, Lily got up to use the bathroom. She walked down the hallway towards the bathroom, when she heard sniffling coming from the guest room, or Seth's room now. She stopped and knocked on the door before opening it.

"Hey, are you okay?" She asked. Seth who was curled up in a ball quickly stopped crying and wiped his tears.

"I-i'm fine." he stuttered. Lily, however, wasn't buying it. As disappointed as she was that he wasn't younger, she couldn't help but feel sorry for this boy. She walked into the bedroom and sat down next to him.

"I know that moving around like this can be scary, but you don't have be scared." Lily scared. "Both my dads are really great and they've been wanting another kid in our house for a while."

"It's not them or you." Seth cried. "I-I just miss my mom."

"What happened to her?" Lily asked softly.

"S-she died." Seth replied through his tears. Lily suddenly felt so much sympathy for this boy. She couldn't imagine losing one of her dads.

"I'm really sorry," Lily replied. "I know that if one of my dads died, I'd be really sad too. I'd probably feel really alone, especially if I was in your situation." she said. "So, I'm just going to lay down here for tonight." she added as she got off of Seth's bed and laid down on the carpeted floor. "You can just try to go to sleep. I'm not going anywhere." Seth seemed unsure what to do at first. Then he took the second pillow from under his head and extended it towards Lily and then did the same with the comforter on the bed. Lily took them graciously. She placed the pillow under her head and covered herself up with the blanket. "Goodnight." She said.

"Goodnight." Seth replied quietly. "T-thank you." he added.

"Don't mention it." Lily said as she snuggled under the comforter and fell asleep. The next morning, Kurt walked down the hallway and stopped by Lily's room. He was surprised to see that his daughter wasn't passed out in her bed, dead to the world. It was Saturday and usually Kurt had to drag his daughter out of bed. He walked down into the living room and she wasn't there or in the kitchen either. She wasn't in the bathroom. There was only one room left to check. As quietly as possible, he opened Seth's bedroom door and saw Lily asleep on the floor next to Seth in his bed. Kurt smiled and then went woke Blaine up.

"Hey, honey, you have to come see this." Kurt said softly. Blaine rolled over and pulled the covers up higher.

"It's Saturday. I want to sleep." Blaine murmured.

"No,come on." Kurt pushed. "You have to see this." Blaine groaned and got up from under the covers. He followed Kurt down the hallway to Seth's room. "Look." Kurt said with a smile as he pointed to Lily on the floor.

"See, I told you she'd get over herself." Blaine replied. " I just didn't think it would be this fast." he laughed. "Now, come on. Come back to bed with me. It's Saturday and the kids are sleeping." Kurt smiled as Blaine emphasized the word kids. He took his husband's hand and follow him back to their bedroom. He knew now that their family was in good shape and that everything was going to work out.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a Note, the first three chapters were really only background. This is where the story really begins.

As Erin Riley approached the Anderson-Hummel household, she couldn't help but feel that just like her other six foster homes, that this was just a temporary stop in her journey. Only a few of her possessions, well all of her possessions, but there weren't many to begin with made the journey with her. She learned over time that it was easier that way. Don't get attached to things that you'll just have to abandon in a few months. After walking down the long stone walk way, she came to the white front door. She turned to her social worker, Amy and smiled.

"See you in a few months." She said with a smile.

"I sure hope not." Amy replied. "Try to make this one work sweetie. They're really good people, I promise. This one is going to be different."  
"That's what you said about the last five foster homes." Erin said quietly.

"Well, I mean it this time." Amy told her. "Just hang in there kiddo. You call me if you ever need anything. okay?" Erin nodded.

"I will." She replied. "Bye Amy." Amy waved as she got into her car and then backed down the long driveway. Now, Erin was all alone...again. She took a deep breath before slowly raising her fist and knocking on the door. She heard footsteps coming closer and then the door opened and revealed a tall man with light brown hair that was spiked to perfection.

"Hi, I'm Erin Riley…" Erin began

"Oh Erin! We were expecting you." the man said excitedly. "I'm Kurt and welcome to our, and well...your home." he laughed. "Please, come in." He said as he backed away from the doorway and cleared a path for Erin. She grabbed her bag and her guitar case and walked inside. On the couch, there was another man. He was short and his hair, unlike his husbands, was not spiked up, rather gelled to his head like a helmet. "Erin, this is my husband, Blaine." Kurt told her. The man got up from the couch and came over to shake her hand.

"Hi, It's nice to meet you." he said with a friendly smile. Erin smiled back and nodded, too shy to really say anything.

"Lily! Seth! Come down here." Kurt called up the stairs. Footsteps thundered down the stairs and then a girl with blonde hair and a boy with brown hair walked into the living room.

"Oh, you must be Erin." The girl said. "I'm Lily and that's Seth." she added point to the boy. Seth just waved, feeling no need to actually introduce himself, seeing as his sister had already done that. Before Erin even replied, she felt a hand on her own pulling her away from the rest of the people she had just met. "You'll be staying in my room, so I'll show you where it is." Lily said as she pulled her up the stairs. She followed Lily down the hallway to the very last room on the right. "And...this is our room." she proclaimed proudly. There were two beds in the room, each one pushed against the opposite wall. "I have the closet," Lily explained, "but, we got you this dresser. I hope that'll be big enough."

"Yeah… It'll be fine." Erin said quietly. "I don't have that much clothing."

"Then I, am going to have to take you shopping." Lily replied. "You don't know how happy I am to finally have another girl living in this house! It's just been me and three boys. Well, my dads are gay, but still. Sorry, I'm rambling." Lily said,stopping herself. "I tend to do that a lot."

"It's...okay." Erin said hesitantly. She had never had to deal with this type of a personality before. Usually kids of her foster parents wanted nothing to do with her, but this girl was different. Erin was worried that she'd never get a minute to herself.

"Well, I'll give you time to get settled. Call if you need anything." Lily said before skipping off downstairs. Erin let out a sigh of relief as Lily left. She may have been a bit high strung, but at least she was nice. Erin took a seat on the bed and set down her guitar case and her bag. She pulled out her clothes first, which just consisted of two pairs of jeans, three t-shirts, a fancy shirt, a sweatshirt, and a extra pair of converse. She opened up the first drawer in the large dresser and put all of them in there. She really didn't need the other three drawers. Then, she reached back in her bag and pulled out a guitar pick that had been her dad's and a picture of the two of them.

She really missed her dad. He had died when she was just eight years old to stomach cancer. After that her mother discovered her true love, which was alcohol, and soon became pretty addicted. It was awful living with mother, especially when she was drunk, which was almost all the time. When she was fifteen, her mother had fell asleep drunk with a cigarette in her mouth and lit the house on fire. No fifteen year old could ever forget a day like that. A day where their mother screams at them to "Leave her the fuck alone and let her die." Needless to say, social services got involved after that and Erin was left to fight for herself in the system. Her mother never even tried to get better and take her back. Erin had pretty much given up on her. Her only goal was to survive in the system until she was eighteen and get the hell out of there.

The last thing in the bag was her baby blanket that she had for...well forever. Her grandma, her dad's mom, had knitted it for her and she had never slept anywhere without it. She laid it across her bed and took a deep breath. Well, that took care of unpacking. The rest of the night, Erin spent mostly in her bedroom. Her new foster family was friendly, but she wasn't ready to be one of them yet. She barely knew them. She just needed time. On the other hand, she was stressing about her first day of school tomorrow. It was already October and classes had already been in session for a month. So, that meant that once again Erin had to suffer through being "the new girl" which she hated. She only hoped that this school would be a lot better than her last one and wouldn't include airport security scanners at the entrance.

Later that night, Lily came to bed, still happy and smiley. "Goodnight." She said sweetly.

"Goodnight." Erin replied before turning on her side to face the wall as she cradle the baby blanket in her arms. "Please, let this be a good one." She murmured before snuggling further under the covers and falling asleep. Her wake up the next morning was not as peaceful.

"Crap! I'm late!" She heard Lily say loudly. "Erin wake up. We're late." Erin opened her eyes and stared at the alarm clock on her bedside table. It was already 7:25. School started at 7:38, which was a really weird time. Erin threw back the covers and pulled on a pair of jeans, a clean t-shirt, her sweatshirt, and her converse. "Wow, you're fast." Lily sighed. She threw on a pair of black yoga pants and a tight graphic T and then pulled her beautiful curly blonde hair into a ponytail. "Fine, I'll just have to have a bum day." She said. Erin looked at her. That was a bum day outfit? What was a regular day outfit? After, Erin followed Lily downstairs to the kitchen. Lily opened the cabinet and grabbed two packs of pop-tarts and then threw one at Erin. "Bye Dads! We're leaving." Lily yelled as she grabbed her car keys and made a break for the door.

"Bye girls."Came Kurt's voice as he walked down the stairs. "Have a good first day, Erin." he said sweetly.

"Thank you." She muttered before racing after Lily. She climbed into Lily's car just in time because as soon as she shut her door, Lily stepped on the gas and drove off.

"God if I'm late again Mrs. Jones is going to kill me." Lily blabbed as she shoved the poptart into her mouth with one hand and drove with the other. Erin was fairly certain she wasn't even really watching where she was going and wondered if she'd even live to be called "the new girl" once again. Amazingly, they made it to school in one piece. "The main office is right over there." Lily said before running off to see her friends once they had made it into the building. Erin nodded and walked into the main office.

"Hi, I'm Erin Riley. I'm new and I have to pick up my schedule." She told the secretary. The old woman sitting at the desk smiled at her before rifling through some papers and then handing one to her.

"You're first class is honors global studies. It should be right down that hallway." the woman told her.

"Thank you." Erin replied before walking out of the main office. She was fairly certain that the bell had already ran because only a few kids remain in the hallways. She walked down the hallway and searched for room numbers and then looked back down at her schedule. Suddenly, she bumped into something...or someone and her papers fell to the floor.

"Oh, I'm sorry." said a voice. Erin looked up and in front of her was this gorgeous boy with dark brown hair and beautiful green eyes.

"No, I'm sorry. I wasn't looking." Erin apologized. "I was just trying to find my class." she added softly.

"So, I take it your new." the boy said with a white toothed smile. "I'm Logan. Maybe I can help you find your class?" he offered. "Where are you headed?"

"Umm...Honors global studies." Erin replied. "Mrs. Deily" she added.

"Oh that's right over there." Logan said pointing to a door right across the hallway.

"Thank you." Erin said as she made her way over to the door.

"Hey, if you need help finding the rest of your classes, I could meet you after class. I'm right across the hall." Logan offered.

"Yeah,' Erin replied. "That would be nice." she said with a smile.

"Alright, see you later…" Logan paused. "You didn't tell me your name."

"Oh, it's Erin." She told him.

"Well Erin, I'll see you after class." Logan said before going into his classroom. Erin smiled as she watched him walk away. Maybe being "the new girl" this time wouldn't be so bad.


	5. Chapter 5

Surprisingly, Erin's day hadn't been as bad as she thought it was going to be. Logan had helped her get to all of her classes and they had even eaten lunch together. During the last period of the day, they had a class together, so when the bell rang, they walked out of the classroom and down the hall together. Once outside the building, Erin turned around to face the boy who had been like her knight in shining armor today. No one had even called her "new girl". It was just like she had been there all along. That was something that she had never experienced in her past schools.

"Well, I better go. My...friend is taking me home." Erin told him. This day had been too perfect and she wasn't going to ruin it by telling him that she was a foster child. Just the word 'foster" tended to drive people away. It gave off a connotation that practically shouted that you were spoiled goods.

"Oh okay," Logan replied with a smile. "Maybe tomorrow I can show you to all of your classes again...you know, just in case you forget." he added quickly.

"Yeah maybe, I _am_ pretty forgetful." Erin replied, mentally cursing herself for saying something that corny.

"Well then, I guess I'll see you tomorrow." Logan replied.

"Yeah, see you then." Erin said quietly before turning away from him and walking into the parking lot where Lily's car was parked. She waited for what seemed like ages before Lily and another girl finally came out of the building.

"Oh crap, I'm so sorry." Lily apologized as she came to the car. "I forgot I was bringing another person home. My bad."

"It's okay." Erin said softly.

"Oh, this is Amanda." Lily said introducing the girl standing to her left who was immersed in her phone at the moment. Erin muttered a quiet hello, but Amanda hadn't even looked up from her phone, so she most likely didn't hear it. Lily got into the drivers seat and Amanda climbed into the passenger seat, so that meant that Erin was forced to sit awkwardly and all alone in the backseat, while the other two girls chatted the whole ride home. After pulling out of the parking lot, Lily and Amanda began talking endlessly about guys, none of which Erin knew.

"Hey, did you see your lover boy today?" Amanda asked grinning at Lily.

"Yeah," She giggled. "He looked at me in english today and he even smiled!"

"Oh my God! He totally likes you!" Amanda exclaimed. "I wish a guy like Logan Smith would want to go out with me." Just hearing that name made Erin's ears perk up and her stomach turn in knots.

"I bet he asks me out before Prom." Lily added. "We are going to make such a good couple." It was clear to Erin that this was a guy that Lily really, really liked, but unfortunately so did Erin. She didn't want to want to make Lily feel like she was trying to take Logan from her. That would definitely build some unwanted tension between the two of them. Erin knew very well the consequences of not getting along with your foster parents' kids You get shipped off to another foster home and Erin didn't want to move again. She would just have to stand her ground and not let Logan get any misleading signals from her.

Once all three girls got home, Lily and Amanda camped out on the couch to do their homework and watch television. Erin wasn't comfortable sitting with them, so she walked up the stairs and then down the hallway to her room. She sat her backpack down on the bed and then took a seat herself.

As Erin sat on her bed doing homework, something in the front pocket of her backpack kept catching her eye. After taking a long deep breath, she took the glimmering plastic package from her backpack and held it in her hand. It was the unopened and untouched poptart package that Lily had given her this morning. Just holding it in her hand made her feel so guilty. She thought about the small amount of food she had eaten for lunch and just couldn't bare it. In her mind, she was already so fat and that apple she had eaten for lunch was only making her fatter. She sat the poptarts down on the bed and then ran over to the bathroom and locked the door. She needed to get that food out of her system.

Erin knelt over the toilet and took her finger and forced it down her throat, which brought up all of the bile sitting in her stomach. She repeated the process until nothing was left in her stomach for her throw up. After taking deep breath, she stood up, flushed the toilet, and washed her hands. She looked at her reflection in the mirror. Still, Erin thought that she looked fat, but at least she had taken a little bit of that weight. Her stomach didn't appear to bulge out quite so far anymore, not that it really had in the first place. After that, Erin left the bathroom like nothing had ever happened and continued to work on her homework.

Erin didn't like to put a name whatever problem she had and she didn't like to even recognize that it was a problem. It was just her typical, everyday life. She chose not to eat, but if it was necessary, she'd purge as well. Basically, anyway to lose weight was a method that Erin used or at one point had tried. She hadn't always felt this way though. It had started after her dad died. Her mother, an extremely fit and skinny woman, found her love in alcohol and knew just what to say to make her daughter feel horrible about herself while the effects of her new love plagued her body. Heartbroken by her mother's harsh and self-confidence destroying criticisms, Erin relied on her eating disorder to help her finally be able to capture her mother's approval, but it never happened. Yet, Erin still felt the need to continue. It was like her mother's voice was ingrained into her subconscious and it was always telling her that she was fat. It told her that she was ugly. It told her that she was worthless and a waste of space. Living with anorexia or bulimia, or whatever Erin chose to call it was a daily battle that Erin had become very much accustomed too. It was her own little secret. No one knew about it, and that was the way that Erin intended to remain.

A half an hour had passed since the high school students had been dismissed and it was time for the middle school students to be dismissed. After the bell rang, Seth walked over to his locker to grab his things before getting on the bus. He mentally went over all the things he would need as he stood and grabbed different books from his locker and stuffed them in his backpack. Then, out of nowhere, Seth felt his body be pushed forward into the hard metal door of his locker and his books fell out of his hands and dropped onto the floor. Fighting back tears, he pushed himself off of the ground and looked down the hallway to see the laughing faces of his usual bullies, Nicholas and Jason, who had made it their mission to make his life a living hell. He looked himself over after standing up. There was a scratch on his hand from a hook in his locker, but it wasn't deep. His arm hurt, but it wasn't broken, just bruised. All in all, it could have been worse. Luckily, nothing had happened to his clothes. It was way easier to hide the cuts and bruises rather than the rips in clothing. Kurt had an eye for finding things like that and once Kurt got on a topic, it was hard to get him to leave it alone.

After brushing himself off, Seth picked up his books and shoved them into his backpack before running off to catch the bus. He made it just in time and took a seat right behind the bus driver. That was the seat that he felt safest in and he sat there every single day as he battled the fear of bullies. When the bus got to his stop, Seth got off and walked home. Once in the house, he saw Lily and Amanda in the living room watching some annoying reality television show that only girls watch, so he quietly grabbed a snack and walked upstairs to his room. He heard the sounds of a guitar coming from Lily's room. He walked towards the door and peeked inside. Erin was sitting on her bed where she strummed a guitar and sang as tears fell down her face:

_Every day is so wonderful_

_Then suddenly it's hard to breathe._

_Now and then I get insecure_

_From all the pain, I'm so ashamed._

_I am beautiful no matter what they say._

_Words can't bring me down._

_I am beautiful in every single way._

_Yes, words can't bring me down... Oh no._

_So don't you bring me down today._

"That sounds beautiful." Seth said softly interrupting her. Erin jumped at the sudden voice and furiously wiped at the tears on her face. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah...yeah, I'm fine." Erin stuttered. "That song just always gets me." Seth didn't look convinced with her answer.

"Okay, but just know, I understand how hard moving to another foster home is," Seth began. "Just know that I'm next door and I'm here if you need to talk." Erin nodded and nervously bit down on her lip.

'Thanks, but...I'm fine." She said. "Nothing's wrong. It was just the song."

"Okay if you say so, I'll let you alone now." Seth said. Then just before he was about to leave Erin called after him.

"Wait!" she said. "What happened to your hand?"

"I-I tripped a-and fell." Seth stuttered out. Erin didn't look to convinced with his answer either.

"The offer goes both ways. I'm here if you need to talk too." Erin told him.

"I'm fine." He said,almost reiterating Erin's answer. "I'm just clumsy." Seth told her before walking away and into his room. Both kids breathed out a sigh of relief when the other one left. They both had secrets that they wanted to keep and in that moment, both of their covers were almost blown.

Later that night, after Kurt and Blaine, got home from work, all five of them sat down at the dinner table to eat.

"So, Erin, how was your first day?" Kurt asked.

"Oh, it was good." Erin told him.

"Were you able to find you classes alright?" Blaine asked jumping into conversation.

"Yeah, another student helped me around today." Erin told him trying to keep her answer as discrete as possible. If Lily found out that Logan was the kids helping her, it would only be a matter of time before she was packing her bags and heading to a new foster home.

"Well that was nice of them." Blaine said with a smile. "What about you Seth?" he asked.

"Yeah, my day was good too. I got a 98% on my history test." Seth said quickly as he hid his injured, and now bandaged covered hand underneath the table.

"That's my boy!" Blaine said, full of pride as he patted Seth on the back.

"Good job sweetheart." Kurt added before turning to his daughter. "What about you missy?"

"Well," Lily began. "We found that soccer workouts are soon, so I'm super excited about that! I also got a B- on my English test!" Lily said proudly.

"That's awesome honey." Kurt said excitedly for his daughter. Erin really didn't know why though. A B- wasn't exactly a grade to aspire too. After being congratulated by her father, Lily continued to talk endlessly about her day and her friends, no one could get a word in edgewise, not that Erin or Seth wanted too. Periodically, they would look up at each other from across the table and both of them knew that the other one knew their secret or thought they did anyway. For now they were both safe, but secrets always managed to find a way to make it out of the shadows and out into the open for everyone to see.


	6. Chapter 6

Ever since Erin found out about Lily''s crush on Logan, she tried to stay away from him. But that task proved to be harder than expected. Logan kept coming up to her and trying to talk to her, despite all the excuse that Erin made in order not to talk to him. One day while at her locker, Erin felt someone come up behind her.

"Did I do something to you?" the voice asked. Erin turned around and behind her stood Logan.

"No, you…" Erin said before Logan cut her off.

"Then why do you keep pushing me away? I thought we were friends." Logan asked.

"I-I've just been busy." Erin stuttered.

"No you haven't. I can tell that you're lying." Logan said. "Just tell me the truth. You at least owe me that."

"Fine…" Erin said as she let out a long sigh. "One of my friends has...a crush on you and I just feel like if we hang out, then I'm betraying her."

"Well, luckily for you, I'm not looking for a girlfriend." Logan said with a smirk. "I'm just looking for a friend, particularly one who can help me with English." he laughed. Erin smiled back.

"I-I guess, I could do that. I mean, be your friend who helps you with English." she replied.

'Very good then." Logan said, a cheesy smile on his face. "Why don't you come over to my house and we can work on that English homework together?"

"Okay." Erin replied. "I'll guess I'll see you after school then."

"Wrong." Logan told her. "You'll see me at lunch. Friends tend to eat lunch together. It's a very _friendly_ thing to do."

"Fine, I'll see you at lunch." Erin said before shutting her locker and walking down the hallway towards her next class, a huge smile across her mouth. Although she didn't want to hurt Lily, her heart was telling her this was a good thing and it had been a while since a good thing had come Erin's way.

After telling Lily she was going over to a friend's house, Erin walked over to Logan's car where he was waiting. "You ready to go?" she asked.

"Yup," Erin replied. Logan leaned off of the car and then opened the door for Erin. She blushed and sat down in the car. Then, Logan went around and got in the other side of the car. Once out of the parking lot, Logan turned on the radio and Florida Georgia Line's "Cruise" came on. Logan smiled and began to sing along. When he looked over at Erin, she was staring at him with a weird look on her face.

"What? Do I sound bad or something?" he asked.

"N-no." Erin stuttered. "You sound good, it's just...country's not my favorite type of music."

"What?!" Logan explained. "How do you not like country music?"

"Hey, my dad was a guitarist in a rock band." Erin replied. "I wasn't exactly raised on country music."

"Wow, this is a game changer." Logan said. "I-I just don't know if we can be friends now." Erin generally looked concerned. Friends weren't things Erin came by easily and she didn't want to lose Logan. "I'm just kidding." he added a few seconds later with a laugh.

"Jerk!" Erin said loudly as she punched him into the arm.

"Hey! Don't punch the driver! Do you want to get into a car accident?" Logan questioned. "Geez, Erin." he laughed. She grinned back at him and then soon enough, they pulled into Logan's driveway. Logan and Erin both got out of car and then walked into his house.

"Hey mom." Logan said to the woman who sat on the couch watching TV.

"Hey honey," the woman said sweetly. "Who's this?" she asked as Erin peeked her head from around the corner.

"This is Erin." Logan told her. "We're going to go up to my room and study for English together."

"Okay, honey." Logan's mom replied. "Door stays open."

"Mom!" Logan yelled. "Nothing is going to happen. We're just friends."

"Hey, I'm just being cautious." She said, defending herself. While Logan fought with his mom, Erin looked around the house. She noticed a few pictures of a very pretty girl who looked about their age. She took a guess that she was most likely Logan's sister. Then, all of sudden, Logan was whisking her away upstairs.

"Sorry about her…" Logan said, his cheeks red with embarrassment.

"It's really okay." Erin replied. "She's nice and motherly, like she's supposed to be." That was what Erin assumed anyway. She had never had a mother who could be considered "motherly", but she assumed that if she did she would be just like Logan's mother.

"Anyway…" Logan said. "Let's get to work on that English homework." he said. Erin nodded and grabbed her English binder out of her backpack and sat down with Logan on his bed. They worked together for a while, but then Logan stopped the progress.

"Can I talk to you?" Logan asked.

"You are talking silly." Erin replied.

"No, I mean seriously talk to you." Logan said. This time he wasn't joking.

"Yeah, I guess so." Erin replied.

"So, I know that this might seem weird, but I've notice a few things." Logan began. "You-you rarely ever eat at lunch and if you do you always run to the bathroom afterwards." he added hesitantly. Erin felt like her heart was going to beat out of her chest. This couldn't be happening.

"So what, you're like stalking me?" Erin said defensively as she stood up from the bed and tried to leave.

"Erin!" Logan called after her. "Just wait! Just answer me this question...please. I think that you have an eating disorder. Am I right?" he asked.

"You're delusional." Erin shot back. "I'm leaving."

"Erin! Stop!" Logan yelled. "Did you see the pictures of the pretty girl downstairs?"

"Yeah so, what does this have to do with you being delusional and making accusations?" Erin growled back.

"That girl is my sister. You want to know something about her?" Logan said. Erin didn't answer, so Logan took her silence as a yes. "She's dead." Instantly, Erin felt awful. "She died last year. She was anorexic and developed an irregular heartbeat and died of a heart attack. She made her body work so hard to keep itself alive that she had a heart attack at seventeen years old. And, I don't want that to happen to you. I know that you have an eating disorder and I don't want- no I refuse to let what happen to her, happen to you." Erin, whose eyes were filled with tears, walked back in and sat down on Logan's bed. She knew that she needed to confide in someone and Logan already knew.

"You're right." She said. "I-I do have an eating disorder." she confessed, a tear rolling down her cheek. Logan didn't say anything at first. He walked over to a guitar case in the corner of the room and took out a dark brown guitar.

"I want to play something for you." Logan said as he began to strum the guitar.

_Take off all the makeup, girl_

_Shine your light, show the world_

_Don't be shy, don't be scared_

_You don't have to hide under there_

_Let's throw away all the magazines_

_Turn off the static on the TV_

_Wish you could see yourself the way I do_

_Nobody ever told you_

_Nobody ever told you_

_You shine like a diamond_

_Glitter like gold_

_And you need to know_

_What nobody ever told you_

_Yeah_

_La la la la la_

_Mirror mirror on the wall_

_Acting like it knows it all_

_Tells you lies of vanity_

_It doesn't care what's underneath_

_All hung up on the negative_

_Doesn't have to be the way it is_

_Wish you could see yourself the way I do_

_Nobody ever told you_

_Yeah, nobody ever told you_

_You shine like a diamond_

_Glitter like gold_

_And you need to know_

_What nobody ever told you_

By the time the song was finished, Erin was really crying. Logan set his guitar down and grabbed her hands and held them in his. "I told you today that I wasn't looking for a girlfriend and that was true. I haven't been looking for a girlfriend. I've been looking for _you_. The day we met, I felt something, something that I've never felt before in my life. I feel like I've known you all my life and something in my heart and in my soul tells me that we are meant to be together. I don't know if that mean as friends or something more, but right now, I'm telling you that I will be here for you through all of the stuff that you're going to go through. I'm going to be here to tell you over and over again how beautiful you are. I'm going to do that until you believe it yourself and hopefully many years after that."

"Thank you." Erin cried as she dove into Logan's chest. "Thank you." she said again as Logan rubbed her back and held her tightly. It was as if a weight was taken of her shoulders. Someone knew her secret and it turned out okay. No, not okay. More than okay.

Back at home, Lily was not having a wonderful and weight lifting night. "Okay, did you read the article?" Kurt asked his daughter.

"Yes,' Lily replied.

"Good. Step one is done." Kurt told her. "We just need to do the questions. So, let's look at number one. What does the first one say?"

"Why does the…umm." Lily said pausing. "main…" Lily continued to struggle to read the sentence, tears pooling in her eyes. Completely frustrated, Lily took the textbook and chucked it across the room. "I'm never going to get this! I'm just stupid!" she yelled.

"You are not stupid. You have dyslexia. You have a learning disability." Kurt told her firmly. "You are not stupid."

"Yes I am!" Lily screamed. "I'm never going to get into a good college. I'm just stupid!" Kurt took a deep breath.

"Go and cool of in your room for a while." Kurt said. Lily got up from the kitchen table and ran upstairs and slammed her door. She flopped down on her bed and sobbed into her pillow. She just didn't understand why she had to be so stupid. Both of her dads were both so smart and Seth was like a genius. Lily just felt like she didn't belong. As she lay on the bed sobbing, the door opened. It was Erin.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Nothing. Just leave me alone." Lily told her. Erin didn't leave. She walked into their room and sat down on Lily's bed.

'Usually when someone's crying, that means they're not okay." Erin said softly. "You can trust me. What's wrong?"

"I-I just feel so stupid." Lily cried. "I'm dyslexic and I know that's why I have so much trouble in school, but I just wonder why me? Both of my dads' are smart. Seth is like a genius. You're in all honors and AP classes. I just feel like...I don't belong in this family."

"Look, I know very well how it feels to feel like you don't belong." Erin said. "But, you belong in this family. They love you and ultimately that's what matters most. The grade thing, I can help you with that. I can tutor you. I know for a fact that you're not stupid. You may need to work harder than everyone else to get good grades, but you're definitely not stupid." Lily smiled at Erin.

"Thank you." She said. "I really like having a sister."

"Me too." Erin replied.

"I have some English homework. Want to start that tutoring now?" Lily asked with a smile.

"Sure." Erin replied a smile still on her face. It never went away after leaving Logan's house.. "Go get it and we'll work on it."

"Cool." Lily said. "By the way, why are you so smiley?" she asked.

"It's nothing." Erin said. "I'm just glad that we're getting closer."

"Me too." Lily told her before running downstairs to grab her homework. Erin let out a deep sigh of relief. She loved that she and Lily were getting closer. She only hoped that Lily wouldn't find out about Logan and if she did, Erin could only hope that it wouldn't ruin their newly formed bond.


	7. Chapter 7

The months of being bullied were beginning to wear on Seth. Everyday he was coming home with new cuts and bruises. It was a wonder how he hadn't broken anything yet. He just didn't feel safe in that school. The worst part was that he wasn't even being himself. Seth had known he was gay for at least a year now. He wasn't out of the closet and yet the bullying was awful. If he came out, Seth didn't think he could handle that level of bullying.

Of course, everyone in school had their suspicions. He wasn't the most athletic kid and he liked to dress nicely. Also, he never seemed to be interested in girls. They all knew he was gay, but at least most of the other students were nice enough to not say anything about it and leave him alone. Then there was Nicholas and Jason. They had been mean to Seth during sixth and seventh grade, but never physically violent with him like were now. It had been a lot easier to hide the bullying when it was verbal. Physical bullying made that task a lot harder.

On this particular day, Seth was just feeling awful. He had failed his math test, which never happened to him. Math was one of his best subjects. He had also forgotten his lunch and their wasn't any money in his account, so he couldn't buy anything to eat. So, he was starving. He really just wanted school to be over and to go home. As he stood at his locker grabbing his books for his next class, he felt two hands push him from behind. He flew forward and his head hit the metal edge of the locker door.. Seth knew that he was bleeding and something in him just snapped. He pushed himself up from the ground and turned towards Nicholas and Jason who were only a little farther down the hall. He ran down to where they were and pushing them both from behind.

"What the hell?" He yelled. "Why did you push me?"

"Same reason we always push you." Nicholas snarled back. "Because you're a weak, little nerd and we can."

"Also, we don't want to you spreading your disease to the rest of the school." Jason added.

"What are you talking about?" Seth asked. "I don't have a disease."

"Oh really, gay boy." Jason shot back. "Do you really think you're fooling anyone? You parents are a pair of fags and so are you." Seth could take it anymore. He lunged forward and punched Jason square in the nose. Jason stumbled backwards clutching his nose.

"That's it." he snarled. He ran forward and took a swing at Seth's face and hit him in the eye. Seth was quick to shake it off. He went to punch Jason again, but suddenly he couldn't move his arms. Nicholas had grabbed him from behind and now Seth couldn't move anywhere. Jason threw punch after punch, until finally a teacher came running down the hallway and stepped between the two boys.

"Stop! Right Now!" The teacher ordered. "All three of you come with me to Principal Harris' office." The three boys walked down to the principal's office and were seated on separate benches. Seth could feel the angry eyes of Jason and Nicholas staring him down. They were clearly pleased with their handy work. Seth's eye hurt so badly and he knew it would be bruised soon and he could taste the blood on his lip.

"Boys, If you don't tell me what happened, I will be forced to call your parents. Would you three like to save me three phone calls and tell me what happened?" Principal Harris asked as she came out of her office.

"He just punched me in the face!" Jason shouted.

"That's not true!" Seth shot back. "He pushed me into a locker."

"I did not! I got pushed into you." Jason lied. "Nick and I were fooling around and I lost my balance. Right?" he said looking to Nick. "We were both just defending ourselves when he came at us."

"Yeah, it was just self-defense." Nick told Principal Harris.

"That's a complete lie." Seth said. "They always pick on me for…" Seth stopped. He couldn't tell her why. He wasn't ready to officially come out of the closet.

"For what?" Principal Harris asked.

"J-just because they want to." Seth stuttered out.

"Well, Mr. Jacobs, if you can't give me a real reason, I'll have to believe that Nicholas and Jason are telling the truth." Principal Harris told him. Seth sat in silence. He couldn't tell her why. He was stuck.

"I'll take your silence as your answer." Principal Harris told Seth. "You two boys will have one detention after school for fighting. You may go back to class now." she told Nicholas and Seth.

"Thank you ma'am." Both boys replied. As they were leaving, Jason stopped in front of Seth. "I'm sorry about the locker man." he said, but with a smirk across his face that said he really didn't mean it. Of course, Principal Harris couldn't see that smirk because Jason's back was towards her.

"Alright Mr. Jacobs, you can come into my office and wait for your foster dads' to arrive." Seth got up from his seat and followed her into her office. He looked down the whole time. He didn't want her to see the tears forming in his eyes. About twenty minutes later, there was a knock on the door and outside was Kurt and Blaine. Immediately, both of them rushed over to him.

"Who did this to your face?" Kurt asked immediately as he looked at Seth's black and blue eye and split lip. Before he could speak, Principal Harris cut him off.

"Seth got that in a fight with two other boys in his grade." she said.

"Well, why aren't they here?" Blaine demanded. "Why weren't their parents called?"

"Because it was Seth who started the fight?" Principal Harris told them.

"But, that's not like him." Kurt told her. "He's always been so mild tempered. Something else must have happened?"

"From what the other boys told me, Jason, was pushed into Seth and made him fall into his locker. Then, Seth punched him in the face. I even saw the other boy apologize for falling into him."

"Is that true Seth?" Kurt asked turning to his son.

"No not really." Seth said. "He wasn't pushed into me. He pushed me! They always pick on me."

"You still have not given me a reason to why they pick you." Principal Harris pointed out. "I'd be much more inclined to believe you if you gave me a reason." Seth went silent. He still couldn't tell her.

"Wait? Why does he need a reason?" Blaine asked. "He says these kids are picking on him. That's bullying, no matter what the reason. Why aren't you addressing that?"

"There were no witnesses to the two other boys bullying Seth, only them using self defense when the fight broke out, which Seth started. I can't take one students word on a subject." Principal Harris replied. "This school has a strict policy on violence and I have to suspend Seth for a week."

"What?" Seth asked, his eyes almost overflowing.

"What are the other two boys getting as a punishment?" Blaine asked.

"They both have one after school detention." She told them.

"How is that fair?" Kurt exclaimed. "They were in the fight as well. Why aren't they being suspended?"

"Because they did not start the fight." Principal Harris explained, clearly losing her patience.

"You know what? This is absolute crap." Blaine spat at her. "Come on Kurt, Seth, Let's go." He said. The three of them walked out to the car together. Seth climbed into the car and went all the way in the backseat. He didn't want to talk to Kurt and Blaine. He just wanted to cry. This wasn't fair. It wasn't his fault. It was quiet all the way home. When they did get home, Seth ran into the house and made a break for the stairs.

"Seth!" Kurt yelled after him. "Come back down here. We need to talk."

"Talk about what?" Seth yelled back as he stopped on the stairs. "It's not like you can do anything."

"Why didn't you tell you were being bullied?" Blaine demanded.

"Because you couldn't do anything about that either." Seth screamed

"How do you know that?" Kurt asked. "We could talk to the school-" he began.

"You can't make me not gay!" Seth screamed and after he did, he clapped his hands over his mouth. He had just told his deepest secret. His knees collapsed and he sat down on the stairs and continued to sob. Kurt and Blaine were quickly at his side. Kurt pulled the crying boy into his chest and rubbed circles on his back. After Seth had calmed down, Kurt took Seth's face into his hands.

"Listen, I know that it seems hard right now, but one day you are going to find someone who makes you as happy as Blaine makes me." Kurt told him. "Until then, you tell us when someone is picking on you. We will do whatever it takes to make you feel safe. You are part of our family. You are an Anderson-Hummel and no one pushes us around." Kurt told him.

"Yeah buddy, you have to tell us." Blaine said. "We can't help if we don't know."

"The most important thing that you need to remember is that we both still love you so much." Kurt said. "Nothing you could ever say could change that."

"I-I love you guys too." Seth said. It had been weird between Kurt and Blaine and Seth for a while. He never truly felt like a part of the family like Lily did. He wasn't their child. He was just a kid who needed a place to stay until he could be on his own. But now, Seth knew that they were his family and he wasn't going to ever lose them.

"Come on." Kurt said as he helped Seth up. "Let's go get some ice for you face and then we'll watch a movie together."

"I unfortunately have to head back to the hospital." Blaine said. "but, I will see you both in a few hours when I get home." Then he turned to Seth. "You, give me a hug." He said. Seth smiled and hugged walked over and hugged Blaine. Blaine hugged him tightly and then placed a kiss on the top of his head. "I love you." He said quietly.

After Blaine left to go back to work, Seth and Kurt settled on the couch together while Seth held an ice pack over his swollen eye and swollen lip. They settled on "The Avengers", which was one of Seth's favorite movies. Kurt personally hated it, but Seth liked it and that boy needed something to make him happy today. A little after two, Lily and Erin came home. The girls were deep in conversation when they came in, expecting for no one to be home.

"What are you guys doing here?" Erin asked. Then, Seth removed the ice pack and his black eye was exposed.

"Who did that to your face?" Lily demanded as she raced to Seth's side.

"These two guys at school." Seth replied.

"I'll kill them." Lily snarled. "No one beats up my brother."

"Why did they beat you up?" Erin asked coming into the living room. Seth looked nervously at Kurt.

"You can tell them." He said.

"They didn't like the fact that I-I'm gay," Seth said. The news didn't even faze Lily.

"Well, then they're stupid and ignorant." Lily said. Seth looked at her with a shocked look on his face. He knew that they were close, but he didn't think she'd be on board with the idea so fast. "Did you seriously think I would accept you Seth? We have two dads. You're my brother and I love you. Also, you need to tell me if those little punks are messing with you, I'll punch their faces in." Lily told him and then pulled him into a hug.

"That goes double for me to." Erin said as she took a seat next to him and took his hand into hers. Seth smiled up at both of his sisters. It wasn't easy to let his secret out of the shadows, but he was glad that he did. He had a wonderful family by his side. He decided that some secrets just can be hidden in the shadows. They come out and sometimes it's better that they do.


	8. Chapter 8

A few weeks after going to Logan's house, Erin and Logan had become inseparable. They walked to class together and also ate lunch together. They were essentially dating, but were sure not show too much, if any, PDA at school. Erin was still really worried about Lily finding out and being really mad at her.

The real reason that they sat together at lunch was so Logan could make sure that Erin ate. And, she did eat at lunch, but what she did eat, she purged later. Erin felt guilty lying to Logan, but this wasn't something that just having a boyfriend could change. She still felt fat and ugly and now more than ever she wanted to look beautiful.

"So, are you ready for thanksgiving break?" Logan asked Erin as they sat together at a lunch table.

"Thanksgiving break, yes. Thanksgiving, not so much." Erin told him.

"Yeah, I can understand how a holiday centered around food would be hard for you." Logan admitted. "But, promise me you'll try to at least eat a little bit." Erin sighed as she looked into Logan's eyes. He was so hopeful and proud of her. She didn't want to let him down.

"I promise." Erin replied as she ate a piece of popcorn chicken from off of her tray.

"Good, I think we should seal our promise with something."Logan said as he looked around to make sure no one was looking.

"No, Logan." Erin said. "No kissing, at least not at school."

"Relax. No one's even looking." Logan said as he leaned closer and closer. Then just as he was about to kiss her, he snatched up a piece of popcorn chicken and popped it into his mouth.

"Hey!" Erin shrieked as she slapped his arm. "I thought we agreed I'm the one who needs to eat."

"That rule totally doesn't apply to popcorn chicken." Logan laughed. "There are no rules when it comes to popcorn chicken."

"You're such a dork." Erin muttered.

'But you love me anyway." Logan joked.

"I guess so." She replied. "But, if you don't quit stealing my food that may change." she told him a smirk across her face. At the end of day, Logan and Erin walked out of school together.

"Well, I guess I'll see you in a few days." Logan said.

"Yeah, have fun with your family on thanksgiving." Erin replied.

'I"ll try." He laughed. "You remember our promise. okay?"

"I will." Erin replied.

"Okay, bye, love you." Logan replied before he could stop himself. His cheeks blushed bright red. Erin felt like her heart had stopped when she heard him say what he did. She smiled back.

"Love you too." She replied. "I'll see you later." she added before walking into the parking lot to find Lily's car. When she got there, Lily was already waiting for her.

"There you are! You took forever." Lily groaned as she got into the driver's seat.

"Sorry, my locker was jammed." Erin lied.

"Whatever, it's okay." Lily said. "It's probably better that we're late. Thanksgiving is at our house this year and I know that my Dad is probably freaking out and frantically cleaning."

"Do you not normally have thanksgiving at your house?" Erin asked.

"We alternate between everyone in the family." Lily explained. "This year it's at our house, but last year we had it at my Dad's parents' house. Then there's also my Daddy's parents', my Aunt Charlie, my Aunt Annie and Uncle Zack, and My Uncle Lucas. There's also my Aunt Sami, but she's still in college so she doesn't have to host any holidays. Although, it'd be pretty interesting to host thanksgiving from a dorm room." LIly laughed.

"Wow, you have a really big family." Erin replied.

"Yeah, my Daddy was a foster child too, you know." Lily told. "My Grandpa Tom and Grandma Kim adopted him and all the rest of my aunts and uncle. There's five total."

"Wow, adopting five kids is crazy." Erin said. "Most people won't adopt...one." she added looking down at her feet. It was pretty much silent after that awkward moment in the car. Luckily they weren't very far from home. When they did get home, Lily and Erin found Kurt, like Lily had thought frantically trying to clean the house. Lily and Erin snuck upstair in the hope of avoiding being sucked in. The rest of the night was pretty quiet. The kids kept to themselves, while Kurt continued to clean and Blaine tried to reassure him that the house looked fine.

The next morning was Thanksgiving and everyone was up early. Erin pulled on a pair of jeans and one of her t-shirts and began to brush her hair.

"No definitely not happening," Lily said to Erin. "You are not wearing the same t-shirt that you always wear on Thanksgiving."

"Well, it's all I really have." Erin said quietly.

"You can borrow something from me." Lily said as she ran to her closet. She looked through all her clothes on hangers and finally pulled out a pretty light blue blouse. "It's perfect! Here put this on." she said handing it to Lily. Erin looked at the shirt. It was pretty, but it was also really tight fitted. Erin didn't want to emphasize her body at all, especially not with all the people coming today.

"Do you have anything looser?" Erin asked.

"Erin, you have a great body." Lily told her. "You should flaunt it. Just try it on." Erin sighed and took off her t-shirt, making sure to turn away from Lily when she did, and then slipped on the top. She looked in the mirror. She didn't look awful, but she didn't look good.

"Ohh you look so pretty!" Lily exclaimed. "Your hair would look amazing in a French braid. Can I do it?" Lily asked.

"I guess." Erin replied. She had never been one to really focus on her hair and make-up. When you lived in as many foster homes as she did, many with only one bathroom, you learned to use it wisely and that time didn't include makeup or doing more than brushing your hair. Erin took a seat in front of Lily on her bed, so that Lily could get to work on her braid.

"This makes me feel like we're in Wicked." Lily laughed.

"What's Wicked?" Erin asked. She really had no clue what Lily was talking about.

"God! How do you not know about Wicked?" Lily exclaimed. "It's only the best Broadway play in the history of like all Broadway plays."

"I've never seen a Broadway play." Erin admitted quietly.

"Geez, I need to notify my dads about this right away." Lily said. "This family practically runs on Broadway. My Aunt Rachel was a Broadway actress. You'll meet her today. Oh, and her daughter Katie. She's four." Erin nodded. Great, another person to meet. "There! I'm finished." Lily announced as she wrapped a hair tie around the end of Erin's hair.

"Wow, it looks really pretty, Lily." Erin said. Just then, the doorbell rang.

"Someone here!" Lily screeched as she ran down the stairs. Lily ran towards the door and when she opened it, Burt and Carole stood outside. "Grandma Carole! Grandpa Burt!" Lily said happily as she gave them a hug.

"There's my Lily-pad." Burt said as he embraced his granddaughter in a hug and lifted her off the ground. Erin watched as Lily greeted her grandparents. She missed that feeling. Her grandparents had been dead for years. After Burt set Lily down, she motioned for Erin to come over.

"Grandpa Burt, Grandma Carole, this is Erin." Lily said. Carole smiled at her and then walked and gave her a hug.

"Its nice to meet you honey." Carole said.

"It's nice to meet you too, ma'am." Erin replied.

"You can call me Carole." Carole told her. Erin smiled and then she was engulfed in a tight hug from Burt.

"Easy Grandpa." Lily said. "Don't break her." Burt laughed and then sat Erin back on the ground. She was saved by Kurt, Blaine and Seth who came in to say hello. Over the next hour, people started showing up. Next was Blaine's parents, Tom and Kim, who were very friendly and nice her. Then, Blaine's siblings started showing up. There was a lot of them and Erin was having a hard time keeping track of them all. She gathered that Blaine was the oldest. Charlotte or "Charlie" as she liked to be called was second. Lily had told her earlier that she was a social worker, who worked with foster kids. She seemed nice when Erin met her. Next, was Annie, her husband Zachary, and their one year old daughter, Karley. After that was Lucas and then the youngest of the family, Sami. Blaine's biological brother Cooper also showed up. Last to arrive was Rachel and her daughter, Katie.

"Well, I think we're all here." Blaine announced once Rachel and Katie were inside. "Dinner with be ready soon." Erin stood off by herself while everyone else mingled. She felt really uncomfortable being here. Finally, Seth came over to her.

"You know they're really nice." Seth said. "I promise they won't bite or treat you differently. They all get what it's like to be a foster child."

"I know, it's just, I really don't know them." Erin said. "They aren't really my family."

"They could be, if you let them you know" Seth said. "I remember my first thanksgiving with them. I was really nervous, but they accepted me right away and made me feel welcome. Why don't you start with Uncle Zack and Aunt Annie?That way, you can play with baby Karley. I know she won't judge you...if that's what you're worried about." Erin sighed. She knew Seth was right. She walked over to Annie and her husband.

"Can I hold her?" Erin asked.

"Oh sure sweetie." Annie replied as she handed Karley over to her. "Have fun!" she laughed before walking off to help Kurt in the kitchen. Erin almost didn't know what to do. She hadn't expected Annie to just leave Karley with her. She looked down at the little girl in her arms and Karley smiled back up at her her and tried to grab the sparkly earrings that Lily had lent her.

Erin spent the next half an hour playing with Karley then Kurt announced that it was dinner time. Annie walked over to her.

"I'll take her back now if you want, so you can eat." Annie said. "I have to feed her anyway." Erin thought for a moment. She really didn't want to eat.

"I'll feed her." Erin offered. "You go and eat and I'll feed her."

"Really?" Annie asked.

"Yeah, I'll just eat later. I'm not that hungry anyway." Erin lied.

"Okay, I guess."Annie replied with a smile. She walked over to diaper bag and pulled out a bottle, a jar of applesauce and a bib. "I just have to grab her seat." Annie told her. Within a few minutes, Annie came back with a blue plastic seat with a yellow tray. She strapped it to one of the kitchen chairs. Then, Erin placed Karley into the seat. "You're sure your okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Erin replied. "Go and eat." she told her. Annie smiled before walking off. Erin sat down in a chair in front of Karley's seat and strapped the bib around the little girl's neck and began to feed her the applesauce. About halfway through the meal, Kurt came over to her.

"Hey honey, do you want me to take over so you can eat something?" Kurt asked.

"Umm...I'm good." Erin replied.

"Honey, you have to eat something." Kurt told her. "You didn't even have breakfast." Erin felt that Kurt was getting suspicious, so she nodded her head and let Kurt finish feeding Karley. Erin went up to the table and placed some salad into a bowl. She just couldn't bare to eat any of the other stuff. It just looked too fattening. After forcing herself to eat the salad in the bowl, Erin felt awful. She could see the bulge in her stomach and she felt fat. She felt like she needed to purge. She snuck upstairs and locked herself in the bathroom and bent over the toilet and threw up the salad that she had just eaten. Suddenly, there was a knock on the bathroom door.

"Is whoever's in here okay?" the voice said. Erin recognized it to be Blaine. She got up and washed her hands before opened the door. "Erin, honey were you throwing up?" He asked.

"Yeah, something didn't agree with my stomach." Erin lied. Blaine placed his hand over her forehead.

"Well, you don't have a fever, so hopefully it's not a stomach virus." Blaine said. "But, just to be safe, why don't you go and lay down for a while." he suggested.

"Okay." Erin replied as she turned away from him and walked down to her room. She could barely breathe when she finally made it there. That had been too close...way too close.


	9. Chapter 9

The week after Seth's suspension was pretty stressful. Despite the possibility of being bullied, Seth still wanted to go back to his school. As a parent, that was absolutely terrifying for Kurt and Blaine, but they let him go back because he wanted to. They weren't going to encourage him to run away from his problems. In addition to that it was fashion week, which meant that Kurt was very busy at work and Blaine had to work almost every single day in the ER. To put it simply, Kurt and Blaine were both exhausted.

Blaine came home on thursday night the week after and found Kurt, dressed in flannel pajama pants and a white t-shirt, cuddled up on the couch sleeping. Blaine almost hated to wake him when he looked so peaceful, but he knew Kurt would kill him if he let him sleep on that couch all night and he had a surprise for him as well. So, Blaine took off his coat and hung it on the coatrack and set his bag down before walking over to the couch and taking a seat. He ran his hand up and down Kurt's back in an attempt to nicely wake him up.

"Kurt, honey, wake up." he said softly. Kurt groaned and swatted his hand away which made Blaine laugh. "Come on, let's get you into bed and off the couch." Kurt slowly opened his eyes and glared at Blaine.

"You woke me up." Kurt put very simply.

"Yes I did, because the last time I let you sleep on the couch, you yelled at me for letting you do it and hurting your back." Blaine said with a smile.

"Fine, thank you." Kurt said quickly.

"I have a surprise for you." Blaine said with a devious smirk. That made Kurt's ears perk up.

"What kind of surprise?" Kurt asked. Blaine pulled out a white piece of paper and handed it over to Kurt. He looked at it curiously before opening it. "9475 Willow Drive? What does that mean? Where is this?" Kurt asked.

"That is address of a bed and breakfast that I have booked us a room at for the weekend." Blaine said with a smile. "I have been given the whole weekend off after last weeks marathon of working and I noticed how stressed you've been at work, so I decided that we deserved a little alone time to just...relax." Blaine told him.

"Oh Blaine!" Kurt exclaimed before giving his husband a quick peck on the lips and pulling him into a hug. "But, what about the kids?" Kurt asked.

"Two of those kids are seventeen and more than capable of staying home alone and watching a thirteen year old." Blaine replied.

"But, what if Seth gets bullied again?" Kurt sighed.

"It's one day of school that he has to get through. The other two days are a weekend." Blaine told him. "He will be fine and if anyone gives him trouble, we both know Lily will beat the crap out of them." he added and Kurt began to laugh. "Honey, we need this time. I feel like I haven't really been alone with you since Seth came along two years ago."

"You're right." Kurt agreed. "I miss just being with you. So, it's settled. We're going away for the weekend."

"Yes we are." Blaine repeated. The plan was set. All they had to do was tell the kids. So, the next morning, while everyone was eating breakfast, they told them.

"We will be going away for the weekend, which means that the three of you are going to be home alone." Blaine began. "We are trusting that you are all responsible enough to handle this and stay out of trouble. Am I clear?" he told them.

"We'll be fine, Dad." Lily replied. "Right guys?" she added motioned to Seth and Erin who both nodded their heads. "Just go and have some fun. You guys deserve it."

"Okay, we'll be gone by the time you guys get back from school, so we'll have to say goodbye now." Kurt said as he went around the table and gave Lily and Seth a kiss on the head and Erin a hug before they had to leave. "I love you guys. See you on Sunday!" Kurt yelled as he watched Lily back out of the driveway and head to school.

Once at school, Lily and Erin went their separate ways. Lily joined her friends on the soccer team and Erin went to her locker to wait for Logan. While grabbing a few things from her locker, she felt two hand grab her sides and tickle her and she flinched away. She turned around and there was a guilty looking Logan standing behind her.

"Seriously?" Erin laughed. "I'm going to kill you."

"So, you say." Logan remarked. "I think that you'd miss me too much."

"Dream on." Erin replied sassily. Logan held a hand to his chest and acted as if he was offended, which got a laugh out of Erin.

"So, you know how before we started...dating...I said I wanted a friend to help me with English." Logan began.

"Yeah…" Erin replied hesitantly.

"Do you think I could cash in on that deal before our next test…" He asked. "Please, please, please, you so much better at grammar then I am.

"Fine," Erin agreed. "I don't understand why you think it's so hard. It's review! We learn this crap every year." she exclaimed.

"Correction. You learn it every year. I sit through class and it goes in one ear and other the other. No actually learning is taking place." Logan replied.

"That sounds like a you problem." Erin laughed as she shut her locker and began to walked down to her first class.

"Please, please, please, help me." Logan begged. "Come on, I'm begging here."

"Okay, you can come over to my house for a little bit after school, but you have to be gone before five." Erin told him.

"Okay, but why five?" Logan asked.

"It's when my foster dads get home." Erin lied. She still hadn't told Logan that Lily was the friend that had a crush on him and she didn't plan on doing it today. Lily had soccer workouts until five-thirty.

"Oh okay," Logan agreed. "That's probably a good idea. I'm not ready to have that conversation just yet." Erin shook her head and then slowly linked her fingers with Logan's as they walked into class.

After school, Erin met Lily in the main lobby. "Hey, I forgot about my workout today. Are you okay getting home?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'll just take the bus. It's no big deal." Erin replied.

"Okay, I'll see you at home then. We'll get pizza or something for dinner tonight since my dads aren't home."

"Okay, sounds good." Erin replied before walking away into the parking lot and getting into Logan's car. They drove to Erin's house.

"We can go to my bedroom." Erin said to Logan once they got into the house.

"Yes, mad'am." Logan joked.

"Just go upstairs dork. I'll get some snacks." Erin told him before disappearing into the kitchen. She grabbed a bowl and made some popcorn and then grabbed two drinks. Erin didn't plan on eating much of this popcorn, but hopefully Logan wouldn't notice. She walked up the stairs and found Logan laying across her bed.

"Your bed is very comfortable, like a cloud." Logan said. "Mine feels like a rock."

"Once again, that sounds like a you problem." Erin joked. "Now, move over so I can sit down too. Unless you prefer that I sit on top of you?" Erin said immediately regretting it. "Nevermind. Don't answer that. Just move over." Erin said. Logan moved his legs and then Erin took a seat next to him. Then, they both pulled out their homework. "So, it's actually pretty simple. It's just sentence types. Let's start with an easy one. A simple sentence has one subject, one verb, and one direct object. For example, I have a comfy bed." Erin explained.

"Okay, so like...Erin has pretty eyes." Logan said. Erin blushed.

"Yeah, that would be correct." She replied. "So, compound sentence. It has two independent clauses and it joined by a conjunction like...I like popcorn, but this popcorn is burnt." Logan nodded to signal that he understood her.

"My sentence is…My girlfriend is beautiful and I love her." Logan said, a smile across her face and Erin's cheeks got a bit redder.

"Good. Two more to go." Erin said. "Complex sentences have one independent clause and one dependent clause. Like...I hate going to school when I have a test that day."

"Okay, I got this one." Logan said. "I love you when you help me with my homework."

"Okay, last one." Erin told him. "Compound complex which has two independents and one dependent. My pencil got broken when I dropped it, but I sharpened it."

"I don't know." Logan admitted. "This one's pretty tricky. Do you think you can help me a little bit more?" he asked with a smile on his face. Erin knew that he got this stuff. He just didn't want to leave. So, they sat on her bed and worked on their English worksheet. Around 4:45, just before Logan was about to leave, he felt like he really understood this now.

"I have a compound-complex sentence for you." Logan said. "You make my heart flutter when I see you, and I would really like to kiss you." He said. Erin smiled and leaned in slowly and pressed her lips to Logans. It felt magical, like fireworks were going off her in head, just like in the movies. Then suddenly it wasn't so magical anymore. She heard the door open and turned around quickly to see who it was. It was Lily. The look in her eyes could only be described as absolute betrayal. She dropped her bag and ran down the hall to the bathroom with Erin close behind her.

"Lily, please! I'm sorry." Erin yelled. "Please open the door." Erin walked back into her bedroom to see Logan when Lily wouldn't open the door. "You have to go. I'm-I'm sorry." Erin stuttered.

"It's okay. I understand." Logan said as he gathered his things. "Text me later, okay?" Erin nodded as she watched Logan leave. Then she went back to the bathroom, where Lily was sitting hiding out.

"Please, open the door Lily." Erin begged. "I'm so sorry." She saw the doorknob begin to turn and then Lily opened the door.

"How could you?" She cried. "You knew I liked him."

"I didn't plan this." Erin explained. "It-It just happened."

"Well, whatever happened, you are still a boy stealing bitch." Lily cried. "Real friends don't steal each others crushes." Lily ran back down the hallway and into her dads' room. Erin began to cry. This was exactly what she wanted to avoid. Now, she was surely going to get shipped off to another foster home and away from Logan.

When Seth came home, he asked where Lily was and Erin just told them that they had a fight. She ordered pizza for the two of them and tried to give a piece to Lily, but after two hours it still sat outside her parent's door untouched. At the end of the night, Erin went to sleep alone in her room. Lily chose to stay in the other room. All Erin could think about was how badly she had screwed up. Maybe going out with Logan had been one big mistake?


	10. Chapter 10

The morning after Erin and Lily's big fight, the house was oddly quiet. Seth, who knew about the tension between his two sisters, decided that staying in his bedroom was probably for the best. Both girls tried that tactic as well, but it didn't really work out for them. Around noon, Erin went downstairs to grab a drink of water and came face to face with a still angry Lily.

"I-I was just thirsty." Erin stuttered out.

"Yeah, I'm sure you were." Lily spat out nastily before walking past her and making sure to bump into her. Erin rolled her eyes. She knew what Lily meant by thirsty and she didn't mean that she wanted something to drink. This was absolutely ridiculous. The farthest that she and Logan had ever gone was kissing and that was as far as Erin would take it for a very long time. Erin felt like she just needed to get out of the house. Then as if on cue, she got a text from Logan.

Logan

Hey wanna meet me at the park?

Erin

-Sure. Anything to get out of this house :l

Logan

-Great! See you soon.

So, Erin went to her room and pulled on an extra sweater and her pair of converse. She walked down the hallway and knocked on Seth's door. "Hey, I'm heading out, but I'll have my cell phone if you need anything, or Lily is downstairs." Erin told him.

"I'll be fine." Seth replied. "Go and have fun." Erin smiled and was about to leave before Seth called her name. "Don't worry about Lily. She'll forgive you eventually. You just have to let her get her anger out first."

"I hope so." Erin replied before shutting Seth's door softly and then walking downstairs. Lily was lying on the couch in the living room and made sure to give Erin a bitch glare, a talent she had learned from her own father, as she watched Erin walk out of the house. Erin got outside and began walking down the block. The park wasn't that far away from her house, but it was so cold outside that it felt like forever until she made it to the park and saw Logan sitting on a wooden bench. He waved and smiled brightly at her as she approached him.

"Hey," He said softly as Erin walked up to him.

"Hey," She replied as she sat down next to Logan. Just being with Logan made her feel so much better. She leaned into his side and he put his arm protectively around and kissed her on the forehead.

"Why didn't you tell me it was your foster sister who had a crush on me?" Logan asked.

"I don't know." Erin sighed. "Part of me was selfish and wanted you just for myself and the other part...was too insecure to believe that if you had the choice, that you'd really pick me over Lily."

"Hey, look at me."Logan told her. "You are the most beautiful, intelligent, and funny girl that I have ever known and if I had the choice between you and Lily or you and any other girl in the world, I would still pick you." Erin blushed and smiled. She really did have the best boyfriend in the world.

"I just feel so bad." Erin said. "I feel like I betrayed her. We were getting along so well and now we're not. What if Kurt and Blaine ship me off to some other foster home? It's not like they'd get rid of Lily. She's their real kid. What if I have leave you?"

"You should not feel bad about this. It wasn't your fault." Logan replied. "You didn't force yourself on me. We...we fell in love and I don't feel the way that I do for you about Lily. It's unfortunate, but her heart was going to be broken either way." Erin nodded sadly. She believed Logan, but that wouldn't help repair her relationship with Lily. "Come on, you just need to have some fun. Come with me." Logan said as he took Erin's hand in his and lead her deeper into the park. "You know, some good things did come out of this."

"What's that?" Erin asked.

"Now, I can hold your hand in public and I can drive you home everyday. We can kiss in the hallway." Logan said. "We don't have to be a secret. We can be like any other normal couple now."

"Yeah, I guess we can." Erin replied. After a few minutes of walking, they came upon an ice rink. "We're at an ice rink?" Erin asked.

"Yeah, so we can go ice skating." Logan said. "That is what normal couples tend to do on an ice rink."

"Logan, I don't-I don't think so." Erin said nervously.

"Why? It's fun!" Logan exclaimed in protest.

"I've n-never been ice skating." Erin replied quietly.

"I'll teach you." Logan told her. "It's really not that hard. I promise. Just trust me. " Erin let out a nervous sigh before she followed Logan into the rink and they rented two pairs of skates. Then they sat down on the benches to lace up their pair of skates. Logan had his tied in a matter of seconds, while Erin struggled to even get hers on her feet. Once she did, she had no clue how to lace them up. "Let me help." Logan offered. He knelt down in front of her and quickly laced up her skates. "Part one of your training...standing up in skates." he told her as he reached out both of his hands and grabbed onto Erin's. She stood up from the bench and immediately almost fell over, but luckily Logan caught her. "Whoops, I've gotcha." he laughed.

"Logan I can't do this. I'm not even on the ice yet and I'm falling." Erin whined. "I"m going to end up killing myself. I should quit now."

"No, come on! You can't quit before you actually get on the ice." He told her. He led her over to the opening of the ice rink and stepped onto the ice with ease. "Now, it's your turn. Just take it one leg at a time." Erin stepped out onto the ice and then slowly got the other foot on as well. "Look at you standing up on the ice!" Logan said sarcastically.

"Shut up!" Erin joked. "I hate you."

"Don't hate me just yet. At least wait until you've fallen at least once." Logan told her. "Okay, so now all you have to do is move your feet forward." Erin began to move her feet. Each movement was shaky and she felt like she was going to fall. They got halfway around the ice rink and Erin was doing a lot better. "You're practically a professional." Logan said. Slowly, he began to take his hands away from her.

"Logan! Don't you dare let go!" Erin yelled. "I'm going to fall!"

"You're ready to do this by yourself. I said to trust me. Remember?" He said as he pulled his fingers from hers. "Just do it like you were before." he told her. Erin began to move her feet and she was actually moving forward.

"I'm doing it!" Erin exclaimed.

"Woohoo! Go Erin!" Logan called as he sprinted ahead. Erin, feeling confident, decided to try to skate faster, but that was a big mistake. She ended up losing her balance and crashing down onto the hard ice on her butt. Logan immediately skated over to her.

"Are you okay?" Logan asked.

"Yeah," Erin breathed out. "My butt is wet." she laughed.

"In the words of you, that sounds like a you problem." Logan shot back.

"Jerk! Help me up." She told him. Logan extended his hands towards her and then pulled her up onto her feet.

"Skate with me?" Logan asked. Erin nodded as she held Logan's hand and they began to skate around the ring. Hours passed by, but it didn't feel like that. Only forever would ever be enough time for the two of them.

"Crap, it's four o'clock." Erin said. "I should really get home. Someone has to feed Seth and it probably won't be Lily."

"Okay, let's go return our skates." Logan said as the two of them skated over to the exit. They returned their skates and then began walking through the park to get back to Erin's house. As time went on it got colder and colder and Erin began to shiver.

"Here. You look cold. You can wear my jacket." Logan said as he took off his heavy black Northface and placed it over Erin's shoulders.

"Thanks." Erin replied. "I'm glad we did this. It was really fun."

"I'm glad you enjoyed it." Logan replied. "Any time that I'm with you is fun for me." Then, before Erin could respond they came to her house. There was loud music blasting that echoes through the entire neighborhood. Trucks and cars were parked all over the street and the lawn. It looked like every single light in the house was on.

"What the hell?" Erin said as she ran towards the house with Logan close behind her. Once inside the house, she saw that everyone was drinking. There were empty red plastic cups all over the place, a keg was sitting in the corner of the living room and numerous beer bottles littered the floor.. Suddenly, she spotted Seth coming towards her. She pulled him into her arms.

"Are you okay?" She asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Seth replied. "Lily invited all these people and they're all drunk."

"Why didn't you call me?" Erin asked.

"One of them took the house phone." Seth replied. "I have no clue where it is."

"Okay, well, you're okay now." Erin told him. "Have you seen Lily?"

'Last time I saw her, she was in the kitchen letting people lick her stomach. I think she has salt on their. It looked gross.." Seth replied. Erin sighed. Body shots were absolutely disgusting.

"Okay, you stay here. I'll go deal with Lily." Erin told him. "Logan, can you please watch him?" Erin asked.

"Yeah, sure." Logan replied. Then, Erin began to push her way through the crowds of people in her house until finally she made it into the kitchen. She saw that Lily was lying across the table. She was wearing black leather shorts and just a bra, because people were licking salt off of her stomach as they did shots. It looked disgusting. Erin walked over to Lily and tapped her on the shoulder.

"What are you doing here?" Lily demanded, slurring her words because of how drunk she was.

"I live here!" Erin shouted back over the music. "What is all of this? Are you crazy? Your dads' are going to kill us."

"They're not even coming back until tomorrow night. We'll have it cleaned up before they get back." Lily slurred. "So, shut up and just drink."

"No, We're both seventeen." Erin said. "I'm pretty sure all these kids are underage. We could get arrested!"

"So what!" Lily yelled back. "I don't give a fuck!"

"Well I do." Erin replied. She went over to the stereo and turned it off. "Everybody has five seconds to get out of here before I call the police!" Erin shouted. Then when no one moved, Erin shouted, "Now! People started to move towards the door and leave. When they were all out, the house looked like a complete mess.

"Why did you do that?" Lily screamed. "I hate you! I wish you would have never come to live with us! Your family didn't want you and neither do we! Why don't you do us all a favor and just get the fuck out of here!" Lily shouted before stomping upstairs. With tears in her eyes, Erin turned to Logan and ran over to him. He pulled her into his arms and held her tightly as she cried.

"Shh, shh, It's okay." Logan soothed. "She didn't mean it. She's just angry and drunk." Erin went to speak but she was cut off by another voice that sounded very angry.

"What the hell happened in here?" roared Blaine as he and Kurt walked into the living room and dropped their bags onto the floor.


	11. Chapter 11

As Erin stood on the beer covered living room floor in Logan's arms, she was completely at a loss for what to say to Kurt and Blaine, who were standing in the doorway with angry looks upon their faces. "I asked a question!" Blaine roared. "What the hell happened here?"

'T-there was a party." Erin squeaked out. "But, please, y-you have to listen to me. It wasn't my idea."

"She's telling the truth, sir." Logan spoke up. "She wasn't even home all day. She was out at the park with me."

"And who are you?" Blaine asked angrily. Erin and Logan looked at each other. They didn't know whether or not to tell them. They were already angry. What if this news only made it worse? Before they could say anything, Seth jumped in for them.

"He's her boyfriend." Seth said. "And he's a very good one, so don't get mad at her. The party wasn't Erin's fault. It was all Lily's idea. She invited all the people and got them to bring alcohol."

"And where is she?" Kurt asked.

"S-she went upstairs." Erin told him. "After she finished yelling at me…" Blaine and Kurt looked at each other before abandoning the living room and walking up the stairs. Erin, Logan and Seth all did the same thing before following the two adults upstairs. Once upstairs they discovered that Lily was not locked up in her bedroom. Instead, she was sitting on the floor in the bathroom hovering over the toilet. It was clear that, like her father, she couldn't really hold her alcohol.

"Lily, is what Seth and Erin saying really true?" Blaine asked. "Did you really throw a party and have alcohol?! You're seventeen. That's illegal." Lily scoffed.

"Not surprised that she told you." Lily sneered. "She has no problem with lying or stealing."

"I did not lie or steal anything from you!" Erin retorted.

"Yes you did, you slut!" Lily yelled.

"Girls! Be quiet right now!" Kurt yelled. "What on earth are both of you talking about?" Lily remained silent and glared out into the hallway at Erin and Logan.

"Lily had a crush on Logan." Erin said. "But, he liked me...not her."

"Only because you stole him!" Lily yelled.

"That's enough!" Logan yelled. "Erin did nothing wrong. We fell in love and that's why we're together. I'm sorry to break this to you, but I don't feel like that for you, Lily. So, you really need to stop blaming Erin for this!"

"Fine." Lily said. "You didn't steal him. That still makes you a snitch and a liar. You're so comfortable telling my secrets. Why don't I share one of yours?" Erin tensed up. She hadn't told Lily any of her secrets.

"I-I don't know what your talking about!" Erin insisted.

"Oh really?" Lily growled. "You don't know anything about the food under you bed that you were supposed to have eaten. I hear you every morning puking your guts out. I know you're anorexic or bulimic or whatever!" Erin felt like her world was crumbling underneath her. She broke from Logan's grasp and ran down the hallway at full speed. Once inside, she collapsed on her bed just sobbed. How had Lily done something like that? How had she just so willingly told her secret? Down the hallway, Logan was so pissed off at Lily.

"You knew!" Logan roared. "You knew about her eating disorder and you did nothing to help her. You knew she wasn't getting better and you didn't tell your parents!

"It wasn't my problem." Lily retorted.

"She could kill herself! Don't you get that?" Logan roared. "This is why I chose Erin over you. I could never like a selfish bitch who is willing to watch her own foster sister kill herself. That is just…!"

"Logan, I think it's time for you to leave." Kurt said cutting him off. "We're not mad at you. It's just time for you to go."

"C-can you tell Erin to text me or call me?" Logan asked softly. "I just want to make sure that she's okay."

"Yeah." Kurt replied. "I'm make sure that she calls you." Logan nodded and then Seth led him back downstairs. Blaine looked at Kurt with sadness in his eyes. How had they both not realized that something was wrong with her?

"You stay and deal with Lily." Kurt said. "I'll go and talk to Erin."

'Okay." Blaine nodded. Kurt turned away from his husband and walked down to Erin and Lily's room and knocked on the door.

"Erin?" he said softly before walking in. Erin was lying face down on her bed sobbing. Kurt took a seat on the bed next to her and began rubbing circles on her back. "Sweetie, why didn't you tell anyone?"

"What was I supposed to say?" Erin cried as she picked her head up from the pillow. "That I feel worthless and ugly! That since I was a child that was all I ever felt."

"Honey, you are neither of those things." Kurt told her. "Believe me."

"How can you possibly understand?" Erin asked. "You can't possibly know what this disease feels like, unless you have it."

"Which I do…" Kurt told her. Erin stopped talking and looked directly at Kurt.

"What?" Erin asked.

"It started in middle school." Kurt told her. "I was bullied because I was gay. Even before I came out, people knew. Or...maybe they didn't. But, I was different and that was all that matter. I remember feeling so ugly and...fat. I remember not eating for days and throwing up in school bathrooms. Anything to lose those pounds that I thought made me so ugly."

"How-how did you get through it?" Erin asked. "How did you convince yourself that you weren't ugly or fat."

"I got help." Kurt told her. "But, just going to therapy or talking to someone isn't going to fix you. You need to be the one to do the need to discover how beautiful you truly are. This recovery won't completely be by yourself, but a lot of it will be." Erin nodded to show that she understood Kurt. "And honey, we're going to get you better. I promise." Kurt told her. Erin dove into his arms and gave him a hug. Kurt held her tightly and rubbed soothing circles on her back.

"Thank you." Erin said softly.

"Don't mention it honey.' Kurt told her. "Now, why don't you call that extremely cute boyfriend of yours. He wanted to make sure you were okay." Erin nodded.

"I will." Erin said. Then, Kurt stood up from the bed and left Erin alone to call walked back down to bathroom where Blaine was currently holding Lily's hair back as she threw up yet again.

"Now for you missy, you are grounded for two weeks." Kurt said.

"At least!" Blaine chimed in. "Having a party when we're not home is bad, but a party with alcohol and underage teenagers is even worse. What were you thinking?"

"I just wanted to have some fun." Lily spat out. "Little miss eating disorder ruined everything."

"Stop that right now!" Kurt said. "What Erin has is a disease and a very hard one to get over. So, you need to stop with the eating disorder insults. Did you know I have anorexia?" Kurt asked his daughter.

"I-Dad, I didn't know." Lily said.

"Well, next time you'll think before betraying a person's trust and judging them." Kurt told her. "You can sleep on the couch tonight. I don't think Erin wants to see you tonight." Lily nodded. After that Kurt and Blaine went back downstairs.

"How could this happen?" Blaine asked. "I thought we could trust her."

"She's still a good kid." Kurt replied. "She just made a bad decision. How could we not realize that Erin had an eating disorder? How couldn't I see that?"

"We were busy." Blaine said. "And...she hid it well."

"That doesn't make me feel any better." Kurt replied.

"Well, we can't dwell on the past." Blaine said. "We can only help her get through this in the future. Knowing is the first step in actually helping her." Kurt nodded. He knew Blaine was right. They had been too busy and hadn't spent enough time with their kids. Now, it was going to be different. They were going to spend more time as a family and get Erin help. Hopefully, things would get better in time. That was all that they could hope for.


	12. Chapter 12

After the party fiasco, things started to move forward for the Anderson-Hummel family. Kurt began to take more time off from work to spend time with the kids and Blaine did as well. His schedule wasn't as flexible as Kurt's, but any opportunity he had to spend with his family he took. They spent Christmas and New Years quietly as a family instead of going back to Lima to be with both Kurt and Blaine's families. It was more important that their family be in a good place, before anything else happened.

Lily and Erin, although for the most part they were civil towards one another, were still fighting. It was clear that Lily still resented Erin for dating Logan, but that was something that she was just going to have to get over. Erin started going to see a therapist for her eating disorder and although she was getting better, not everyday was a good day. But, at least, she had the support of her family and Logan of course to help her

It seemed that the only one actually happy with his life was Seth. The bullying hadn't necessarily stopped, but it had slowed down. Seth didn't feel scared every day when he went to school and it was a rare occasion when stray cuts and bruises appeared on his skin. There was also one important factor that made Seth's life just a little bit better. That factor was a boy named Jamie. They had met a few weeks ago and ever since then, Kurt and Blaine were sure that a smile hadn't left their sons face.

_flashback: Seth's middle school_

_Seth walked down the hallway as he made his way to Algebra class. He felt rather confident and even safe as he did this. The bullying hadn't gone away completely, but it was just small enough that Seth could handle it himself. He didn't exactly know why the bullying had stopped, but he was glad that he did. When he rounded the corner, he saw that Nicholas and Jason had cornered another boy up against his locker. Seth had never seen this boy before, so he figured that he must be a new student. The boy was short with glasses and blonde hair. Immediately, Seth felt compelled to go and help this boy. There had been so many times in his own life that he wished that he had someone to step in and help him._

" _Hey! Stop it!" Seth yelled as he ran up to Nicholas and Seth. "Leave him alone!"_

" _Shut it, gay boy." Jason retorted. "This has nothing to do with you!"_

" _Actually it does!" Seth told him. "I'm not going to let you bully him like you bullied me. I don't care if I get suspended again. I will beat both of you up!"_

" _Whatever, calm down. We'll leave." Nicholas said. "Figures you'd stick up for another fag!" he added before checking Seth into a locker and walking off with Jason. After both of the boys had left, the boy slumped to the floor and let out a deep sigh of relief._

" _Thank you." He breathed out to Seth._

" _No problem." Seth replied. "Don't worry about them. If they bother you, you can just come to me." The boy nodded. "I've never seen you here. Are you a new student?"_

" _Yeah, my dad and I just moved here a week ago." the boy replied. "I'm Jamie."_

" _I'm Seth." Seth told the boy. "Jason and Nicholas are pretty specific in who they pick as their targets, so I'm guessing that you're gay." Jamie nodded. "That's okay. So am I." Seth told him. "We can be friends, if you want to of course."_

" _Yeah, I'd really like that." Jamie replied._

Now that they had each other, Jamie and Seth couldn't have been happier. If only Lily and Erin would stop fighting. Then their family would truly be back to normal. However, that didn't seem to be happening anytime soon.

Lily, Erin, and Seth had a half day at school. Lily made it home first and was cooking some soup in a pot on the stove for herself, when Erin came home with Logan. Since the girls refused to carpool anymore, Logan was a daily visitor at their house. Immediately, Lily rolled her eyes as she watched the couple walk in.

"Well, I guess I'll text you later." Logan said as he saw Lily's glare.

"Yeah, I'll text you later." Erin replied as she leaned in and gave Logan a quick kiss on the lips. Then, Logan waved and left.

"Must you do that." Lily spat out as soon as Logan left.

'What?" Erin asked.

"Flaunt your boyfriend in front of me." Lily retorted.

"You would do the same thing if you actually had a boyfriend." Erin told her. "So, if I want to give my boyfriend a kiss before he leaves my house, then I can." At this point, Lily was so angry that she through the towel that she had in her hand and stormed upstairs muttering things under her breath. "Hey! Don't just walk away!" Erin called as she followed her. Erin had had enough of Lily's crap. She couldn't take it anymore. She wasn't going to let Lily get away with it any longer. As the girls fought downstairs, something horrible began to happen downstairs. The towel that Lily had thrown had landed on the stove and quickly caught on fire. The smoke began to fill up the kitchen and quickly spread through the downstairs. It took a while for Lily and Erin to hear the smoke alarms that echoed through the house over their yelling.

"Oh shit! The soup!" Lily exclaimed as she ran downstairs with Erin right behind her. As soon as the hit the bottom stair, they were overwhelmed by the smoke. Still, they both tried to get through the smoke to get to the kitchen.

Outside Seth had just gotten off the bus and began walking home. He could smell smoke in the air, but couldn't figure out where it was coming from. As he got closer and closer to his house, Seth realized that this smoke was coming from his house. Not wanting to actually go in, he ran to his neighbors door and knocked.

"Hi Seth.' Mrs Evans their next door neighbor said when she answered the door.

"I need to use your phone. I think my house is on fire!" Seth said quickly. Instantly she let him into her house and called 911 to report the fire. Soon enough, siren were roaring up the street. Kurt was also on his way home because Seth had called him.

Back inside, Lily and Erin were trying to put the fire out but nothing was working. "Lily, we have to get out of here." Erin said as she coughed because of all the smoke. Lily nodded and together they started trying to get out of the burning house. Erin felt herself becoming really dizzy. Because she was still underweight, the smoke was affecting her much more than it was Lily.

"Erin, come on!" Lily yelled when Erin stopped. She watched as Erin swayed back and forth before collapsing onto the ground. Lily ran over towards her and tried to wake Erin up. When Lily realized that Erin wasn't waking up she tried with all of her might to lift her and bring her outside. Luckily, it wasn't long after that when firefighters came in. One picked up Erin and the other escorted Lily out while the other firefighters worked to put out the fire. Once outside the firefighter, ran over and set Erin on a stretcher and they attached an oxygen mask over her face. Lily ran over to Kurt and Seth were waiting outside together and pulled his daughter into a hug.

"Oh God, I'm so happy you're okay." Kurt said.

"Dad it's all my fault!" Lily cried. "I started the fire and now Erin collapsed."

"Shh, you didn't mean to." Kurt told her. Then a paramedic came over to them.

"We'll be transporting your daughter to the hospital for observation." the paramedic said.

"Which hospital?" Kurt asked.

"New York Memorial Hospital." the paramedic replied. Kurt nodded and the paramedic ran off to the ambulance.

"Lily, take Seth and go to the hospital. I will be there as soon as they get the fire under control." Kurt told his daughter. Lily nodded and then linked hands with Seth as they drove behind the ambulance.

"Someone has to call Logan." Lily said as she was driving. "But, I don't have his number."  
"Give me your phone." Seth said. Lily handed over her cell phone and Seth dialed a number. "Here." he replied as he handed the phone back to his sister.

"How did you know his number?" Lily asked.

"Don't ask." Seth replied. Lily sighed and then waited for Logan to answer.

"Hello?" Logan said as he answered the phone.

"Logan, it's Lily." Lily said. "There's been an accident. There was a fire and Erin is being rushed to New York Memorial Hospital."

"I'll be there." Logan replied before hanging up the phone and Lily pulled into a parking spot at the hospital. From that point, doctors including Blaine worked on Erin as Lily and Seth sat outside. Kurt arrived about a half an hour later and told them that the fire was controlled and it only damaged the kitchen. About an hour later, Blaine came out to them.

"She's okay." he said. "She had smoke inhalation, but we gave her oxygen and she's doing much better."

"Can I see her?" Lily asked.

"Only for a little while. She need to rest." Blaine replied. Lily nodded and walked into Erin's room and took a seat next to Erin's bed.

"Hey," Erin said weakly.

"Hey,' Lily replied. "I'm so sorry." She blurted out. "for everything." she added.

"Me too." Erin replied. "I really liked being...sisters. Do you think we could be like that again?"

"Yes," Lily replied. "I've been stubborn anyway. I realize how much Logan loves you and how he doesn't feel like that for me. You two should be together."

"Thank you." Erin replied as she reached out hugged Lily. This wasn't how Kurt or Blaine had wanted for their girls to make up, but they were glad that they did.


	13. Chapter 13

Now that they girls had finally stopped fighting, the family could focus on being happy and being a family. Luckily the fire hadn't done too much damage to their house. It was contained to just the kitchen which was easily repairable. All in all, they had been lucky. Now, it was February and that meant one thing...Valentine's Day.

"Hey." Logan said as he walked up to Erin in the hallway.

"Hey, Happy Almost Valentine's Day." Erin replied with a smile.

"Speaking of that, I have made us reservations at The Glass Diner." Logan said.

"Are you serious?" Erin exclaimed. "It's like impossible to get reservations there!"

"What can I say, I have connections." Logan replied.

"I love you." Erin replied as she leaned in and placed a kiss on cheek. "This is going to be the best Valentine's day ever." Logan smiled at his girlfriend and linked hands with her and walked down the hallway as they headed off to class.

Over at Seth's middle school, all of the students were buzzing with the excitement of the upcoming Sadie Hawkins dance. Jamie and Seth were sitting at their usual lunch table that day.

"So, did you hear about the Sadie Hawkin's dance?" Jamie asked.

"Yeah,why?" Seth asked.

"I just thought that maybe-maybe...we could go." Jaime said.

"But this is a Sadie Hawkins dance...it's girl's ask the guys." Seth said. "You're not a girl."

"Well neither are you." Jaime retorted. "I just thought it would be fun to go because I like you and-" Instantly, Jaime stopped talking.

"You-you like me." Seth stuttered out.

"Yes…" Jaime replied. "D-do you like me?"

"Well..yeah." Seth replied.

"So, do you want to go… to the dance?" Jaime asked.

"Yeah." Seth replied. "That would be fun." That day Seth rushed home and to his surprise both of his dad's were home.

"I have amazing news!" Seth squeaked out to his fathers.

"What is it?" Kurt asked.

"Jaime asked me to the Sadie Hawkins Dance!" Seth exclaimed. Instantly the look on Blaine's face dropped.

"No." He said.

"No, what?" Seth asked.

"You're not going." Blaine said.

"But Dad!" Seth cried.

"No Seth, you're not going and that is final!" Blaine yelled back.

"I hate you!" Seth screamed. "You ruin everything." he yelled before dropping his backpack and running up the stairs and into his room. He made sure to slam the door just to add effect.

"Blaine, come on." Kurt said. "Be reasonable."

"No Kurt." Blaine said. "I am not letting him go to a Sadie Hawkin's dance with a boy!"

"Times have changed." Kurt told him. "This is New York, not Ohio. People are more open here."

"No, I am putting my foot down. He is not going." Blaine told Kurt. Upstairs, Lily and Erin had heard Seth's door slam and went to see what was wrong.

"What's wrong Seth?" Erin asked.

"Dad is ruining my life!" Seth cried.

"Why? What did he do?" Lily asked.

"He won't let me go to the Sadie Hawkins dance at school with Jaime." Seth replied. Instantly, Lily knew why her father would never let that happen.

"I don't get it." Erin said. "It's just a dance."

"No, you don't understand." Lily said. "When my dad was younger, he went to a Sadie Hawkins dance with another guy. They got beat up. My dad was in coma for three days and his date died. He's probably just scared that the same thing will happen to you."

"So, basically I'm stuck." Seth said. "He's not going to budge."

"Probably not." Lily replied. "But, maybe we could convince him. Erin follow me." Lily lead Erin into their room and together they plotted out a plan to get Seth to that dance. Then they went downstair and stood together in front of their families.

"Can we help you?" Blaine asked.

"We think that you should let Seth go to the dance." Lily said.

"Girls, this is not up for discussion." Blaine told them.

"Just hear us out." Erin said. "The dance is asking for high school volunteers to help chaperone, something about not enough teachers actually wanting to do it, so Lily and I can sign up. I'll even make Logan sign up. That way, we'll be there and make sure that nothing happens to Seth or to Jaime."

"I don't know…" Blaine said looking to Kurt for reassurance.

"I think he should go." Kurt said. "He'll be safe. He'll have three people looking out for him." Blaine looked nervous, but finally he let out a sigh.

"He can go." Blaine said. They girls smiled and gave Blaine and Kurt a hug.

"We have to go and tell him." Erin said as she grabbed Lily's hand and let her upstairs.

"I hope I made the right choice." Blaine said quietly. Kurt hugged him from behind and smiled.

"I'm sure you did." Kurt told him. Days passed and soon it was the day of the Sadie Hawkin's dance. Seth was dressed in a nice dress shirt and a tie and was furiously trying to make his hair look perfect. Lily and Erin on the other hand were trying to finish their make-up and hair before it was time to leave. They had gone out shopping together and picked out two very beautiful dresses. Finally, they finished and went downstairs. Jaime was already there, so they were just waiting for Logan. Then, there was a knock at the door. It was Logan. He was dressed in a nice suit and held two corsages.

"This is for you." He said extending one towards Erin. "And this is for you Lily." he said.

"Thank you." Both girls replied.

"Well, we better get going." Logan said. "Come on boys." he added calling to Jaime and Seth.

"Have fun and be safe." Blaine called as he watched all five of them get into Logan's car and drive away. He could only wait for them to return home. Only then would Blaine finally feel like his heart was trying to beat out of his chest.

The dance went extraordinarily well. Seth and Jamie had an amazing time dancing together and no one, surprisingly, gave them any trouble. Logan made sure to dance with both Lily and Erin and they had an awesome night. On the last dance of the night, Logan held Erin in his arms and swayed to the music.

"I'm sorry we couldn't go out." Erin said. "I know how hard you worked to get us reservations."

"Don't even worry about it." Logan said. "I don't need a fancy dinner to be happy on Valentine's day. I just need you."

"All I need is you too." Erin replied. "This has been a pretty good Valentines' day."

"This has been the best Valentine's day." Logan said. And it was true, it truly was the best valentine's day every. Everyone was healthy and happy. They couldn't ask for anything more.


	14. Chapter 14

After a few months of recovery, Erin was finally ready for her first official weight check. She had elected to just go with Logan rather than the rest of her family. He was the one that made her feel safe and secure and today that was exactly what she need.

"Stop shaking." Logan told her as they sat in the waiting room at the doctor's office. "You've been eating and getting better. There's nothing to be nervous about."

"I know, but I…" Erin sighed. "I feel like I'm back in elementary school and I didn't do my homework. Now, the teacher is going to glare at me with that disappointed look and make me feel guilty.

"But, that's not going to happen." Logan reassured her. "Because, you have been eating and getting better. You're going to get an A+ and if it makes you feel better, I'll even give you a sticker." he laughed.

'It's not funny." Erin pouted, as she tried to keep her smile hidden. Then, a nurse came into the waiting room.

"Erin Riley?" she said. Erin stood up and Logan intertwined his fingers with here. "You can follow me." the nurse said with a polite smile. Erin nodded and followed her back to an exam room. "You can take off your clothes and slip that gown on. The doctor will come in soon to weigh you." Erin nodded.

"Do you want me to leave?" Logan asked.

"No…" Erin said quietly. "J-just close your eyes and go in the corner."

"As you wish." Logan said as he walked over to the corner and buried his face into it. Then Erin began to change. She did it as quickly as possible, so that Logan would have to stand in the corner for very long.

"Okay, I'm finished." Erin said as she took a seat on exam table.

"Never would have pegged you for a pink panties girl." Logan said to her.

"I told you not to peek!" Erin exclaimed.

"Relax." He replied. "I didn't. It was just a guess, but now I know for sure." he laughed. Erin was about to slap him, but then the doctor came in.

"How are we doing today Miss Riley?" the doctor asked.

"Good… a little nervous." Erin admitted.

"Well, there's nothing to be nervous about." the doctor replied with a bright mile. "Why don't you just step up on the scale and we'll get this overwith." Erin nodded and then got off the exam table. She walked over to scale, making sure to keep the back of her gown closed. She stepped up on the scale and closed her eyes. She could hear the doctor moving the weights. "What was your weight when we first began your recovery?" the doctor asked.

"97 pounds." Erin replied. She was so worried that she hadn't gained any weight.

"Well Miss Riley, I'm happy to inform you that your weight is now 101 pounds. You've gained four pounds. That's a very good start." the doctor told her with a smile. Erin beamed with pride. She stepped off the scale and ran into Logan's arms. He hugged her and picked her up. This was amazing news. It was everything that she had been working for.

Over at the park where Seth and Jaime were hanging out, things weren't going as well. Seth and Jaime had just raced each other from all the way on the other side of the park. "I win!" Seth exclaimed as he raced the pole. Jaime was considerably further behind him and he was breathing heavily.

"Fine, you win." Jaime wheezed out as he took a seat on the ground.

"Hey, are you okay?" Seth asked.

"Yeah, I just...I'm just tired." Jaime replied. As Jaime lay on the ground, Seth noticed a trail of bruises running up his stomach.

"What happened to your stomach?" Seth asked. Jaime panicked and quickly pulled his shirt down. "Did Nicholas and Jason do that to you?"

"No, t-they didn't." Jaime stuttered out.

"Jaime, it's just me. You can tell me the truth." Seth said.

"It wasn't them! okay." Jaime yelled, his face looking down in embarrassment.

"Then, who was it?" Seth asked. Then it hit him. "Seth, did your dad do this to you?" he asked.

"He doesn't mean it." Jaime replied. "Sometimes he just gets mad. I'd be mad too, if I had his life. He lost my mom and wound up with a gay kid."

"None of that gives him the right to hit you." Seth told him. "You have to tell someone."

"No!" Jaime yelled."They'll take me away from him. He's the only family I've got left."

"Speaking from experience, sometimes your biological family isn't who you should be with." Seth said. "I'm happier than ever with my dads."

"Well, I love my dad and I want to stay with him." Jaime yelled before running off.

"Jaime! Jaime wait!" Seth yelled but it was too late. Jaime was gone. Seth knew that he had to tell someone. He couldn't just let Jaime's father abuse him like that. So, that night at dinner, Seth decided to tell Kurt and Blaine.

"I have to talk to you about something." Seth said to Kurt and Blaine.

"Sure honey, what is is?" Kurt asked. "You're not getting bullied again, are you?"

"No, I'm fine." Seth said. "It's just...if you had a friend and you knew that friend was being hurt by their parents, but they didn't want to leave their parents, what would you do?"

"Seth, are you talking about Jaime?" Kurt asked. Seth let out a sighed and nodded his head.

'I saw bruises all on his stomach. He told me that his dad did it to him." Seth replied.

"You did the right thing, telling us." Blaine said. "I know that Jaime might want to stay with his dad, but we have to get him out of there. Tomorrow, we'll call social services and have them investigate. We'll do our best to make sure that Jaime is place in our home, or in a very good foster home." Seth nodded and Blaine pulled him into a hug. "Everything's going to be okay." Suddenly there was a knock at the door.

"Who could that be?" Kurt asked. "It's nearly ten o'clock and storming outside." When Kurt opened the door, Jaime stood outside. His eye was black and blue and blood ran down a cut on his forehead.

"Jaime!" Seth cried as he ran over to him.

"He-he was just so angry." Jaime stuttered out. "I-I could stop him." Seth simply pulled his friend into a hug and held him tightly. Kurt and Blaine looked at one another and knew exactly what they needed to do

The next morning, they called social services and Jaime was placed under their care and a week later they were at a trial to determine Jaime's father's future. The judge was just about to make a verdict.

"Has the jury reached a decision?" the judge asked.

"We have your honor." one man in the jury replied. "We find the accused guilty of child abuse."

"Very well." The judge said. "I sentence the accused to five years in prison. Court is dismissed." From that point on, Jaime became a part of their family. And, although he was happy, they all knew that Jaime missed his father.

Two weeks later…

A call came in the middle of the night while Blaine and Kurt were sleeping. Blaine sleeply reached over and picked it up.

"Hello?" he mumbled.

"Blaine?" came a voice that was choked with tears. Blaine recognized to be the voice of his mother, Kim."

"Mom? What's the matter?" he asked.

"Sweetie, I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but Tom had a massive heart attack earlier today." She cried. "and...he passed away." Blaine felt like he couldn't breathe. He had tears running silently down his face.

"When..when is the funeral?" Blaine asked.

"Probably this weekend." Kim replied.

"We'll be there." Blaine replied. "I love you mom."

"I love you too." Kim replied before hanging up the phone. Blaine put the phone back on the holder and remained sitting up in bed. He felt Kurt's hand gently touch his shoulder.

"Blaine, who was that?" he asked. "what's wrong?"

"My dad died." Blaine cried. He turned into Kurt's chest and began to sob. Kurt held him close as he sobbed and Kurt cried as well. He had become so close to Blaine's family. It felt like he was losing his own father.

That saturday was the funeral. All of them, including Jaime, flew down to Lima to attend the funeral. Everyone wore black and people were crying everywhere they looked. Blaine was talking it hard, but Lily was taking it even worse. She had never had to really deal with death before. She couldn't bare to look at her grandfather in the coffin, so instead she just sat in the corner of funeral home and didn't talk to anyone. Erin, seeing her all by herself, walked over to her.

"I know how hard this must be for you." Erin said.

"I just can't imagine not seeing him ever again." Lily said.

"It'll be hard at first." Erin said. "But, overtime, things will get better I promise." she added as she pulled Lily into a hug. This was a hard day for everyone. It's never easy to lose someone that you love. Whether that person dies or gets sent away, the feeling is the same. It doesn't stop you from loving them and it doesn't stop them from loving you.


	15. Chapter 15

As graduation for Erin and Lily got closer and closer, both girls began to get rather frantic, especially Lily. Erin, who chose to go into music, applied to Juilliard along with Logan who was pursuing music as well. They both were just waiting to get their letters to find out if they had an audition. Until then there was nothing that they could really do.

It was no secret that Lily's grades were not very good. It wasn't really her fault because of her dyslexia. Lily did try hard in school,much harder than most high school students. She hoped to get a major in social services, so that she could be like the people that brought her siblings to their family. Lily was extremely social, so that major went well her personality. The one thing that she was really banking on, however, was a scholarship for soccer. Soccer was a huge part of her life and she wanted a chance to play it in college. That was why, today was such an important day.

All of the Anderson-Hummel family gathered on the bleachers at the soccer field to watch Lily play. It was the last game before the championship, the last week that Lily had to practice before scouts arrived. The score was currently 3 to 3 and only a few more minutes were left in the game. A player from the other team began to dribble to ball closer and closer to the goal. Lily prepared herself to stop the incoming shot. Then, as the player kicked a shot into the right corner of the net and Lily dove for the ball. It bounced off her fingertips and soared into the net, but that wasn't the worst part. As Lily came crashing down on to the grass, he knee collided into the hard ground and something popped. Then, when Lily didn't get up, her coach and both of her father's went running over to her. There were tears running down her face as she clutched her throbbing knee.

"Lily, can you tell me what hurts?" her coach asked.

"My k-knee." Lily cried though harsh breaths.

"Can you move it?" her coached pushed. "Just try to straighten it for me, okay?" Lily nodded her head as he coach placed his hands on her leg and began move her leg. Almost immediately cried out in pain. "Okay, it is definitely dislocated or something is ripped." her coach said. "She needs to go to the hospital now."

"No!" Lily cried. "This is the last game before the championship. I have to finish it!" It was then, that Blaine and Kurt jumped in. They knew how important soccer was to Lily and the lengths that she would go to in order to play it, but they couldn't let that happen.

"Honey, I know you're disappointed, but we really need to go and get your knee looked at." Blaine told her. "You can't play on that knee." Lily's top lip trembled as she tried to hold back her tears of disappointment and nodded her head to say that they could go to the hospital. Logan, who was also in the stands, came over and helped Blaine to lift Lily up and then her carry her out to the car. When they got there, Blaine and Logan gently sat Lily in the backseat and Kurt got in with her.

"Hey Logan," Blaine called to the boy. "Can you and Erin take Jaime and Seth home? It might take a little while at the ER. I don't want them to have to wait."

'Sure, Mr. Anderson-Hummel." Logan said politely.

"You can call me Blaine." Blaine told the boy, whose eyes lit up.

"Sure thing,...Blaine." he added before running over to where Erin, Seth and Jaime were waiting. Blaine smiled at the four of them. Erin had really gotten herself and amazing guy. The way that Logan looked at Erin was the way that Blaine used to look at Kurt. And even though they hadn't told anyone, Blaine could tell that Jaime and Seth were more than just friends and Blaine was happy with that.

After leaving the soccer field, Blaine drove to the hospital and they got Lily knee looked at. Like her coach had thought, her knee was dislocated. She would need to wear and brace and used crutches for the next few weeks, which meant that she couldn't play soccer in the championship game.

"It can't believe this!" Lily cried. "I've worked so hard on this all of my life and now I'm going to miss the championship game."

"It's only a game honey. You can still go to support your team." Kurt told her.

"No! You don't get it!" Lily shouted. "Scouts were coming! This was how I was supposed to get into college. Now I'll never get in." Lily dropped her face into her hand and continued to cry. Blaine moved closer to his daughter and forced her to look at him.

"You are a wonderful and smart girl." He told her. "You will get into college. We'll figure something out." And he meant it too, but Lily was still skeptical and utterly heart broken. That fear continued when Erin and Logan got their letters from Juilliard saying that they had made to the next round and had an audition. Both of them were overjoyed and Lily tried her best to be happy for them, but she couldn't help but feel envious towards them and sad for herself.

Three weeks later…

Both Erin and Logan knew that Lily was still upset that she hadn't gotten into college, but today they couldn't let that get them down. It was the day of their auditions.

"Are you nervous?" Logan asked Erin.

"Yeah." Erin replied honestly. "I'm glad I don't have to go first though."

"Thanks for that," Logan whined as he continued to tune his guitar.

"Hey, we picked out of a hat." Erin said. "It's not my fault Seth chose your name." Logan rolled his eyes and then smiled at his girlfriend. Suddenly a loud voice came over the speaker of the loud auditorium and said, "Logan Smith." Logan took a deep breath and leaned over and gave Erin a kiss for good luck. Then, he made his way onto the stage. The judges were seated in the front section of the auditorium, each one with a clipboard in their hands.

"Hi, my name is Logan Smith and I'll be singing "Wanted" by Hunter Hayes." he told them. Then, he began to strum the guitar and sing.

_You know I'd fall apart without you_

_I don't know how you do what you do_

_'Cause everything that don't make sense about me_

_Makes sense when I'm with you_

_Like everything that's green, girl, I need you_

_But it's more than one and one makes two_

_Put aside the math and the logic of it_

_You gotta know you're wanted too_

_'Cause I wanna wrap you up_

_Wanna kiss your lips_

_I wanna make you feel wanted_

_And I wanna call you mine_

_Wanna hold your hand forever_

_And never let you forget it_

_Yeah, I, I wanna make you feel wanted_

Logan momentarily glanced away from the judges and looked over at Erin in the wings. She had tears in her eyes and huge smile on her face. He knew that she understood that this song was for her.

_Anyone can tell you you're pretty, yeah_

_And you get that all the time, I know you do_

_But your beauty's deeper than the make-up_

_And I wanna show you what I see tonight..._

_When I wrap you up_

_When I kiss your lips._

_I wanna make you feel wanted_

_And I wanna call you mine_

_Wanna hold your hand forever_

_And never let you forget it_

_'Cause, baby, I, I wanna make you feel wanted_

After finishing, Logan got up from the stool, thanked the judges, and went running to Erin. "That was beautiful." She told him as she pulled Logan into a hug.

'Thank you." Logan replied. "Now, you go show them what you can do." Erin nodded kiss Logan and went out onto the stage.

"Hi, I'm Erin Riley and I'll be singing, "Warrior" by Demi Lovato." Erin said. She began to strum the guitar and sing.

_This is a story that I have never told_

_I gotta get this off my chest to let it go_

_I need to take back the light inside you stole_

_You're a criminal_

_And you steal like you're a pro_

_All the pain and the truth_

_I wear like a battle wound_

_So ashamed, so confused_

_I was broken and bruised_

_Now I'm a warrior_

_Now I've got thicker skin_

_I'm a warrior_

_I'm stronger than I've ever been_

_And my armor, is made of steel, you can't get in_

_I'm a warrior_

_And you can never hurt me again_

This song had so many different meanings for Erin. Over the year, she had overcome her anorexia and found the love of her life, and a loving family. She had really changed for the better and this song expressed that.

_Out of the ashes, I'm burning like a fire_

_You can save your apologies, you're nothing but a liar_

_I've got shame, I've got scars_

_That I will never show_

_I'm a survivor_

_In more ways than you know_

_Cause all the pain and the truth_

_I wear like a battle wound_

_So ashamed, so confused_

_I'm not broken or bruised_

_'Cause now I'm a warrior_

_Now I've got thicker skin_

_I'm a warrior_

_I'm stronger than I've ever been_

_And my armor, is made of steel, you can't get in_

_I'm a warrior_

_And you can never hurt me_

_There's a part of me I can't get back_

_A little girl grew up too fast_

_All it took was once, I'll never be the same_

_Now I'm taking back my life today_

_Nothing left that you can say_

_Cause you were never gonna take the blame anyway_

_Now I'm a warrior_

_I've got thicker skin_

_I'm a warrior_

_I'm stronger than I've ever been_

_And my armor, is made of steel, you can't get in_

_I'm a warrior_

_And you can never hurt me again_

_No oh, yeah, yeah_

_You can never hurt me again_

By the end of the song, Erin had tears in her eyes. When she finished, the judges clapped for her and stood. Erin was so shocked.

'Young lady, what did you say your name was again?" the one man asked.

"Erin Riley." Erin told him.

"Remember that name guys because I believe that one day it will be up in lights." He said. "You're very talented and we hope to see you here in the fall. You've honestly impressed me and my colleagues."

'Thank you!" Erin said. "Thank you so much." She said before running off into Logan's arms. Both of their auditions were over and all they could do was wait for their letters to come in the mail.

Two weeks later…

Two weeks later was when that day finally came. Logan, who had grabbed his letter, had raced over the Anderson-Hummel home to open it with Erin.

'You first." Erin said.

"No way." Logan retorted. "I sang first."

'Even more reason for you to go first again." Erin argued. Eventually Logan just let her win. He took a deep breath, opened the enveloped and read the letter.

'I got in!" He said happily as a huge smile formed on his face. Erin dove into his arms and hugged him tightly.

'I'm so proud of you!" She said.

"Now, it's your turn." Logan told her. She nodded and opened her letter. She continued to read it over and over. "Well, what does it say?" Logan asked.

'I got in…" Erin said breathlessly. Logan picked her up in his arms and spun in a circle.

"I knew you would." he told her. "There was no doubt in my mind." Suddenly, the phone began to ring and Erin ran over to get it.

"Hello?" She said.

"Yes, we're looking for Lily Anderson-Hummel." The person on the other line said.

"Sure, I'll get her." Erin said. "Lily! Phone for you!" She called. Lily hobbled into the kitchen, still on her crutches and took the phone from Erin. Erin watched as Lily's face changed into a absolute excitement.

"Thank you so much!" She said before hanging up.

"Who was that?" Erin asked quickly. "What did they say?"

"That was the soccer coach from Manhattan college! They saw me play before I got hurt." Lily practically screamed. "Their offering me a scholarship! I'm going to college!"

"Oh Lily!" Erin exclaimed as she hugged her sister. Now all three of them were going to college and everything had finally worked itself off. Now all that was left was graduation.

August…

Graduation passed quickly and so did the summer. Now, The Anderson-Hummel family and the Smith family were in New York City to move their kids into their dorm rooms. They took Lily to Manhattan College first. After a teary goodbye, The rest of the two families drove over to Juilliard to drop Logan and Erin off. They moved into their dorms and finally it was time to say goodbye.

"You call me every weekend, okay?" Kurt told Erin.

"I promise I will." Erin said.

"Hey, and get us tickets to your first big show, Little Miss popstar." Blaine added with a laughed.

"Yeah, I'll do that when it happens." Erin replied. Taking a deep breath, she leaned in and hugged both of them. "I love you Dad. I love your Daddy." She said,which she knew would warm their hearts.

"We love you too baby." Kurt said as he placed a kiss on his daughter's forehead. Then, it was time to leave. Erin and Logan stood hand in hand on the front step of the school and waved goodbye as they watched their parents drive away. This was a new beginning for everyone, but it didn't mean the past was gone. After all,they were family, even if they weren't biologically. Let's be honest, blood doesn't make a family. Love makes a family.


End file.
